Manna Food Center Inc

Manna Food Center is the designated food bank in Montgomery County, and nearly every county nonprofit organization relies on Manna to provide essential food to their clients. Manna is that rare organization that actually achieves synergy by bringing together government, corporations, nonprofit organizations, schools, faith-based organizations, community groups, and individuals with the common cause of fighting hunger in Montgomery County.

Founded in 1983, Manna Food Center strives to end hunger in Montgomery County through education, advocacy, and food distribution. Since our founding, Manna has distributed more than 39.7 million pounds of food to more than 2.5 million individuals in our community. We provided food to 5% of Montgomery County residents facing the hardship hunger this past year.

Through our regular distribution program, Manna feeds about 3,300 families each month at fourteen locations throughout the county. Manna provides each family with a three-to-five day supply of perishable and shelf-stable food.

Hunger is a hidden, but prevalent problem in Montgomery County. One of every four county residents is at risk of hunger and 31% of all MCPS students qualify for a free or reduced price meal, an indication of the poverty we face daily in our community.

Manna also provides food through our agency distribution program at no charge to 50 Montgomery County soup kitchens, food pantries, group homes, and emergency shelters.

Manna's innovative Smart Sacks program pairs a business or organization with a nearby elementary school. Together we provide a bag of kid-friendly food to over, 1700 elementary school children each week at  50 schools. The children receive their food on Fridays so they have food on the weekend when there are no school meals to sustain them.

We rely on the generosity of our community to fight hunger. $0.95 of every donated dollar goes directly to feeding our hungry neighbors.

Because of your support:

Over 1,700 children go home every Friday with a backpack of nutritious kid-friendly food to eat over the weekend when subsidized feeding programs at school are unavailable.

Low-income seniors and those with disabilities receive a three-five day supply of food to help them continue to live independently.

50 soup kitchens, agencies, emergency shelters, and small food pantries receive over 500,000 pounds of food free of charge from Manna. This allows them to reserve their resources to address the root causes of poverty.

More than 38,000 households will receive 70 pounds of fresh & nonperishable food from Manna. Manna will distribute nearly 3.7 million pounds of food to the growing number of our hungry neighbors in Montgomery County.

The food insecure will gain access to local, fresh, nutrient rich produce from the local farming community and will learn about the importance of nutrition through our Client Nutrition Education program.

 

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