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Monthly News from MANNA FoodBank
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GREAT NEWS! Thanks to You, We Have Already Met the Full Match for Bank of America's
Give A Meal
Campaign!
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Thanks to your incredible support, the match was met by November 1st!
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We are thrilled to announce that, thanks to your quick response and support for the food bank. we have ALREADY met our maximum match for the Bank of America
Give A Meal
Campaign!
For every dollar donated through this campaign, Bank of America is matching that dollar - twice!
We are ecstatic because this means another 262,000 meals towards meeting the growing need for food in Western North Carolina!
We are so grateful to you, and to our partners at Bank of America for making this campaign so impactful for the thousands of people that will have food on their plates and hope in their hearts as we move into the winter months.
Thank you!!
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Now through Nov. 15:
Help Make a Local Family's Table a Bit Brighter and Donate a Turkey to our
TURKEY DRIVE!
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This holiday season, we are hoping to fill families’ tables across our region with the staples that we all enjoy during a special holiday meal.
Food with Hope and Dignity
One reality of food banking is that food banks commonly receive holiday-specific food donations after a holiday has already occurred, making it difficult for food banks to provide these food items in a timely way to our neighbors seeking food assistance. We want families across our 16 counties to be able to celebrate the holiday with the rest of the community, and with that hope in mind, we are looking for the community to step up and help us eliminate one more worry for families about how they will fill their own holiday tables.
Donate a Turkey for the Holidays
When you are out shopping, we encourage you to pick up an extra frozen turkey to donate to MANNA! We know that hunger is a daily worry for tens of thousands of people across our region, and something as simple as a holiday turkey can truly give the gift of happiness and hope to people living through the daily experience of food insecurity.
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Empty Bowls: A Major Milestone Met!
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It is with immense pride, and happiness for the communities we serve across Western North Carolina, that we announce the incredible results from our most recent signature fundraiser event, the 17th annual Empty Bowls.
Thanks to all our guests who attended lunch or dinner, the vital donations from our incredible regional ceramic artists who supplied the gorgeous soup bowls that are at the heart of the event, and our dedicated restaurant partners who brought their best bowl-filling fare to feed the Empty Bowls guests,
we were able to break a new watermark in our fundraising for this event
. Once the dust settled, and we tallied the support from our Collector’s Corner tables, we are pleased to announced that
you helped raise a record-breaking $110,000 at Empty Bowls, which provides the food for an astounding 385,000 meals
towards our annual goal of providing more than 15 million meals.
Breaking the $100,000 mark for this event is amazing.
Your support has ensured the ongoing success of Empty Bowls, and in the last four years we have doubled the amount of support raised at this single event.
This success is measured in the amount of food that MANNA can distribute and the number of empty bowls we can fill for children and families across our 16 country service area.
Our most gracious thanks go out to the artists, crafters, makers, and vendors who have helped us with bowl donations, our culinary sponsors, and our event sponsors, without whom none of this would be possible.
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2nd Annual Preserve Communities' Grand Prix Calcutta Fills More Plates Across WNC
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We are overjoyed by the success of our 2nd Annual Grand Prix Calcutta hosted by The Preserve Communities.
This fabulous competition was graced with the presence of world-class horses, riders, and wonderful guests
who rallied together to raise enough money to provide 177,870 meals!
Everyone in attendance had an incredible experience while knowing that their participation was filling the plates of our neighbors in need in Madison County and across WNC.
Jack Fisher, a Madison County native, was especially pleased by the outpouring of support from Preserve Communities residents and the surrounding area. Our hats are off to him, his daughter Jennifer Bunton, their entire family, and to everyone who participated in this extraordinary event!
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Asheville Emporium ReSale Boutique:
Benefitting the Work to End Hunger in WNC
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Shop at Asheville Emporium's ReSale Boutique now through November 6, and your purchase will help support providing food to our neighbors experiencing hunger across the mountains!
Our thanks to Asheville Emporium for your support of the work to end hunger in Western North Carolina!
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26th Annual Ingles Giving Tree!
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Mark your calendars for the best way to ring in the holiday season for the entire family:
The Ingles Giving Tree Lighting Celebration!
The Ingles Giving Tree lighting celebration will be held at the
Asheville Mall
, on
Monday, November 19th
! Join us for a carol sing-a-long, and watch Mrs. Ingle herself light the Giving Tree live on WLOS News 13!
Come ready to spread some good cheer with a
bag of food donations
, and you could be entered to win a $500 Ingles Gift Card!
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MANNA Takes Action to Support Those Affected by Hurricane Florence
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MANNA FoodBank is a member of Feeding America, the national hunger-relief organization of food banks across the country. This organization connects us to food banks across the state and country, to help one another, share resources, and provide support when our communities need us most.
As we all watched the slow progress of Hurricane Florence approach the Carolina coastlines, food banks in the Southeast were already organizing to anticipate the needs that affected communities might have when faced with such a severe weather event.
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We stayed in close contact as the storm made landfall, organizing the supplies we had on hand for rapid deployment. The basics—clean water, shelf-stable foods, handheld snacks, and personal care items—were all inventoried and at the ready. We all held our collective breath in anticipation of the worst, while hoping for the best.
Once the storm’s impact was clear—massive flooding, power outages, stranded families, and impassable roadways—food banks moved into action, supplying needed food and water, and even deploying equipment and staff to affected food banks regions to help address the increased needs for communities in crisis.
MANNA was proud to help in these efforts, including sending food and beverage supplies and four wonderful staff members who volunteered to help in recovery efforts during the hardest times of the post-storm situation.
Food banks take action every day to provide for the daily crisis of hunger across the country, and because of your support, we are able to keep our daily operations running here in WNC, providing 41,000 meals every day of the year, as well as support our sister food banks in temporary times of need.
While we know the recovery from the storm is deep, and ongoing, we are proud to be one small part of helping to make things better again for any community facing challenges, especially when it comes to having safe access to the basic necessities, like food and water.
On behalf of the full plates here across the mountains, and on behalf of the millions impacted by Hurricane Florence this year, thank you for your dedicated support of our efforts to ease the burden of the most basic needs for anyone who needs it.
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Food Drive Information + Updates!
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Hi friends! It's that wonderful time of year, when our thoughts and hearts turn toward the happiness of the holiday season, we reach out to spend time with the people we love, and we share in the gratitude of the world around us. It's also a time when we think of doing something positive and good in our community.
If you are interested in hosting a food drive this holiday season, check out the
Food Drive section of our website
, and get all the information you need in order to have a successful drive!
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INGLES DAY at the MOUNTAIN
STATE FAIR: Food Drive Results
In spite of the threat of an incoming hurricane, supporters and fair-fans showed up in force this year to donate to our annual Ingles Day Food Drive at the Mountain State Fair! This incredible food drive is supported by Ingles, and is a win-win: fair-goers can donate 5 cans of Laura Lynn brand foods and receive free entry into the fair!
Thanks to Ingles, and everyone who donated, we raised a whopping 17,513 pounds of shelf-stable foods
to help supplement the grocery budgets of thousands of families in WNC who are struggling to afford food after paying their rent.
Thank you to everyone who donated to this food drive, and we look forward to continuing next year with this favorite annual tradition!
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Hunger & Health: Partnerships for Better Nutrition
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As MANNA and our partners work together toward a shared vision of a hunger-free WNC, we know that the daily needs of our region are paramount. We are continuing to source and provide healthy, fresh foods to keep up with the growing need we are seeing throughout our service area to address the social determinants of health that are disproportionately plaguing our neighbors facing hunger.
Over the last five years, MANNA has worked step by step to build capacity and increase our ability to provide fresh, healthy foods to WNC residents we serve. With in-depth research and information provided through the Community Health Assessments survey, we know that nutrition, access to healthy food, and chronic disease prevention are priorities in our region. Based on these priorities, MANNA has continued to support this capacity-building work for fresh food, as well as help clients fully utilize the healthy food we source, through an initiative called Nutrition Works.
Nutrition Works is a collective effort to disrupt the negative impact of food insecurity on health through a variety of activities: on-site nutrition education and cooking demos for food distribution partners and clients, working with regional doctors to identify patient food insecurity through a clinic referral project, and of course, ongoing efforts to source fresh produce and quickly distribute it through our network of over 200 food distribution partners.
Initial success of this ongoing work is evident through feedback from the people we serve. We are proud to report that
68% of clients surveyed reported that the healthy food they received at their food pantry helps them manage their chronic disease
. Additionally,
95% said that healthier foods have become available at their food pantry
and
88% reported that they have learned new ways to prepare fresh foods
. This is an incredible accomplishment in our work to address the intersection between food insecurity and health.
With funding through
The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Mission Health Community Investments, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
(Blue Cross NC), we are able to scale up and expand these successful efforts, and continue to support a culture of health and nutrition throughout Western North Carolina for our most vulnerable neighbors.
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Apples! The Healthy
Bounty in our Backyard
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“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther
Did you know that Henderson County, NC is the 7th largest apple producing county in the United States? We are fortunate to have this healthful bounty so close to home, and blessed to have developed some wonderful relationships with our local apple growers.
In addition to providing hundreds of thousands of pounds of local apples for our community each year, these dedicated local growers also help by donating apples to send to sister food banks throughout the Southeast. This fall we are hoping to feed more than half a million pounds of locally grown WNC apples into the Feeding America food bank network, so that everyone facing an empty plate can share in the beautiful produce born right here in the heart of the North Carolina mountains.
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RECOGNITION, AWARDS + GIFTS
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Our largest program at MANNA, the Food Distribution Program, continues to grow in response to the growing need for food across our 16-county region. The 100,000 people that we serve every year in our area are made of up families with children, seniors, college students, people working full time and still not making enough to make ends meet, people on disability, veterans, and many others who are in a vulnerable situation.
Thanks to these incredible supporters, our Food Distribution Program continues to rise to meet the need for food, to fill our neighbors plates with sustenance, and their hearts with hope. With gratitude, we recognize the vital support from
Charles Schwab Foundation, Darden Foundation, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Inc., The Beattie Foundation, and Wells Fargo Foundation
, for their support of our food distribution efforts this year.
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Advocate for those experiencing poverty.
MANNA's mission is to involve, educate, and unite people in the work of ending hunger, and an important part of this mission is advocating for those living in and experiencing the effects of poverty.
As a non-partisan organization, dedicated to sharing information about the issues affecting the people we serve together, MANNA does not endorse political parties or candidates. We simply ask people to work with our elected officials to make legislation that works for us all, and makes our region, our state, and our country stronger from the ground up.
If you are interested in receiving advocacy-related emails from MANNA FoodBank, please click the button below. By clicking here, you are signing up to receive information from MANNA about ways you can use your voice, and actions you can take, to help work towards our vision of a hunger-free Western North Carolina.
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Give. Volunteer. Advocate.
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