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Monthly News from MANNA FoodBank
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The Road to 14 Million Meals
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MANNA FoodBank's daily work is focused on sourcing, sorting, and moving food to our partner pantry and agency network across Western North Carolina.
In 2016 alone, MANNA distributed over 16 million pounds of food...enough for 13.6 million meals.
Every year, MANNA has increased the amount of food being distributed through our partner agency network to meet the existing need for food. Yet again, the need has grown.
As we work to meet this growing need across our 16 county service area, we are acutely aware that
we will need to move even more food this year.
All of our indicators are preparing us to meet the need for 14 million meals in 2017, and this is no easy feat.
As we stretch every resource we have to meet this need, we rely even more on the support of individuals, organizations, businesses, grants, and government funding to ensure that we are filling the empty tables across WNC.
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Preserve Communities Makes a Big Impact
with 1st Annual Grand Prix Benefit Calcutta
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When we heard that MANNA FoodBank had been chosen for The Preserve Communities’ inaugural $25,000 Grand Prix Benefit Calcutta, we were thrilled to learn more!
We soon found out that it is an exciting competition featuring the most talented, graceful horse-and-rider teams from not just across the country, but across the world. We also discovered just how incredible this single event would be for the over 100,000 people we serve with emergency food access every year across Western North Carolina.
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Asheville Hotels Make Sweet Dreams for WNC Families Facing Hunger
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There is a special thing that happens when a group of like-minded individuals come together for a single cause. For MANNA, this past September, which is also Hunger Action Month, that special thing came in the form of a new campaign to address hunger in WNC, called
Sweet Dreams, Full Plates.
Sweet Dreams, Full Plates is the effort of more than 25 Asheville-area hotels to take action against hunger during Hunger Action Month. Each participating hotel asked their guests to help out. Hotels guests were given a Sweet Dreams, Full Plates door hanger, similar to a Do Not Disturb door hanger. Guests could opt out of room cleaning services by hanging this on their door, and in exchange, the hotel would make a $2 donation to MANNA for every participating room.
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FRESH FOOD FOR FAMILIES: MANNA Dedicates the First Produce Pod in NC
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Over the last several years, MANNA has worked hard to establish fresh produce distribution methods that are proven to work. We have launched several initiatives, including MANNA Express, our volunteer driven distribution method, with wild success.
Now, thanks to an important investment from Morgan Stanley Foundation and a strong network partner in Haywood County, MANNA has launched another distribution method to get fresh produce to families fast.
The Haywood County Produce Pod is the first of its kind in the state of North Carolina, and is enabling MANNA to get more fresh food further west into Haywood and Jackson County. Haywood Christian Ministry, a MANNA partner pantry based in Waynesville, is first location for this pilot program to keep produce fresh long enough to get it onto families plates. The Produce Pod is a stand-alone, refrigerated storage container that can hold up to 12 pallets of produce. The pod is available to any MANNA partners in Haywood and Jackson Counties: MANNA delivers a truckload of recently donation produce to the pod, which is then available for our western partners to pick up, any time their clients need fresh food.
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS for the 25
th
Ingles Giving Tree!
Join us on Monday, November 20
th
at 5:00pm for a very special live television lighting ceremony and community singalong to celebrate this local holiday season staple!
Every year, MANNA volunteers work to build a 17 foot tall tree in the atrium of the Asheville Mall. This tree is made 100% of food donated from Ingles—that’s over 20,000 pounds of food in one tree. Throughout the holiday season, we collect food drive donations at the tree to distribute to families in our area. When the tree comes down after Christmas, all of the food goes straight to MANNA, and right out into our 16-county service area.
Ingles Markets is MANNA’s most long-standing grocery partner. Since we opened our doors in 1983, Ingles has been helping us fill the plates of families struggling to make ends meet with food and fund donations, lending us trucks for moving food, helping us keep things cool with refrigerated storage, and so much more.
Ingles Markets has donated tens of millions of pounds of food over the years to support MANNA’s work to end hunger, and this partnership has become something more akin to family.
We hope you will join us for this very special event to highlight the need for food in our area, and to celebrate Ingles Markets and their decades of support for those in need across WNC!
A hint of things to come: Wear something silver and shiny, and come with bells on!
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Are you coming to the Ingles Giving Tree Lighting Celebration?
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LOCATION
The Asheville Mall Atrium
DATE AND TIME
11/20/17
5:00pm -
11/20/17
7:00pm
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EMPTY BOWLS Breaks Records!
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Empty Bowls is MANNA’s fall season signature event focused on raising money to support our food distribution program. Having just hosted the 16
th annual event, we know we have a pretty good thing going.
All in all, the success of Empty Bowls has everything to do with the action and compassion of our arts, food, and hospitality communities.
Hundreds of local potters work throughout the year to make over 1,000 beautiful handmade bowls—the namesake and centerpiece of the event. Artists of all mediums donate gallery-quality work to be sold in our Collector’s Corner Market. Over 15 local restaurants donate gallons of delicious, often gourmet soups that fill guest’s bowls. Our gracious and dedicated host,
DoubleTree Hotel in Biltmore Village, rolls out the red carpet for the 1,000+ people that attend the lunch and dinner events. And, of course, our loyal Empty Bowls guests that come every year to help fill plates across Western North Carolina and make this a regular sell-out event!
Thanks to these folks, that not only show up year after year, but make every year even better than the last, we were able to
raise over $90,000 for our food distribution work at this year’s event!
That means this year, Empty Bowls filled 315,000 empty bowls in WNC.
In the last 16 years, Empty Bowls has raised over $500,000 to support MANNA’s work to address and end hunger for thousands of families.
Thank you to everyone that hosted, attended, donated, worked, volunteered, and championed this year’s amazing event! Our work to end hunger continues to fill bowls across WNC because of you.
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TRIPLE Your Giving Impact, Thanks to Bank of America
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We are so excited to let our supporters know of this wonderful campaign that is happening again this year. Bank of America Charitable Foundation has again partnered with Feeding America to help support food banks across the country with a double match campaign!
That means for every $1 you give, Bank of America Charitable Foundation will give $2 more.
How to Give:
The campaign is simple. If you make a donation to MANNA FoodBank via this website, Bank of America will match your donation…TWICE! That means that your $100 donation is instantly turned into $300! For every dollar donated to MANNA, we can provide the food for 3.5 meals.
2.
Select your donation amount.
3.
Select your local zip code, or the zip code for your preferred food bank.
(MANNA’s zip code is 28805.)
4.
Confirm your donation amount and select MANNA FoodBank as your local food bank.
5.
Finish by entering your payment information. A receipt will be emailed to you.
This is a huge benefit to MANNA and the families we serve. Please consider taking advantage of Bank of America’s generosity and make a donation through this campaign.
But the clock is ticking! The offer ends when Bank of America has met the overall match. Don’t wait!
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MANNA PARTNER HIGHLIGHT
Feeding Avery Families is a MANNA partner pantry in Avery County dedicated to serving the residents in and around Newland, NC that need additional food to bridge the gap in their grocery budget. They offer a free food distribution on the last Wednesday of every month.
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MONTHLY VOLUNTEER HIGHLIGHT
Larry and Sandra Layton are longtime MANNA volunteers. They regularly volunteer in our warehouse, and are the first to respond when we have other needs! From all of us at MANNA, thank you for your generous spirit and "can-do-anything" attitude!
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GIFTS, AWARDS + RECOGNITION
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DAILY MEALS:
SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT for NOVEMBER 2017
FOOD DISTRIBUTION SUPPORT
In 2016, with the help of many supporters, MANNA stretched to meet the growing need for food in WNC by delivering enough food to provide over 13.6 million meals. That’s over 37,000 meals every day of the year.
As we work this year to continue to meet this growing need, and anticipate that we will be filling more plates than ever before, we would like to recognize and thank the following for their support of our Food Distribution Program, which moved 16.4 million pounds of food in 2016.
Our thanks to the
Darden Foundation for their support, which makes it possible for MANNA to provide the food for
10,500 meals through our Food Distribution Program.
The
Beattie Foundation’s support of the Food Distribution Program means that MANNA can provide the food for
35,000 meals! Thank you to the Beattie Foundation for your help in the work to end hunger in Western North Carolina.
As a special part of the “Share Goodness: Feed Your Community” campaign,
The Hershey Company has partnered with
Ingles Markets to make a donation to MANNA’s Food Distribution Program to help in our efforts to meet the daily need for food. This wonderful partnership provides the food for
35,000 meals. Thank you, Ingles Markets and Hershey, for this sweet support!
The
Landwirth Foundation, a long-time supporter of MANNA’s food distribution efforts, has helped us set the table for
70,000 meals with their generous support of our Food Distribution Program. This continues to keep MANNA’s truck fleet on the road, delivering the daily meals that our communities desperately need to thrive. Thank you to the Landwirth Foundation for this support of WNC’s foundation: our people.
Our local partner, the
Buncombe County Department of Health & Human Services, has supported our Food Distribution Program work this year with a grant that provides the food for
105,000 meals. Thank you, Buncombe County DHHS, for your ongoing support of MANNA’s work, and of the Buncombe County community as a whole!
The
Walmart State Giving is an ardent supporter for hundreds of food banks across the country, and MANNA has been the grateful recipient of this support, which includes an incredible grant to keep our Food Distribution Program filling the plates of thousands of families. Thanks to this support, MANNA can provide the food for
245,000 meals.
Grocery Stores Keep On Giving!
The Retail Store Donation Pickup (RSDP) program is a staple food access program for MANNA and for many of our network partners, many of whom depending solely on food donations from local retailers to provide the food needed in their immediate community.
This program allows individual pantries to pick up food donations directly from a variety of grocers and food sellers that operate in their area, rather than the donations coming first to MANNA, and then redirected back into the community. This program improves food distribution efficiency, cuts down on gas expenses for MANNA and our partners, and gets fresh food into the community fast.
Thanks to a grant from the
Walmart Foundation to support the RSDP program, MANNA has continued to grow our relationships with individual retailers to increase the amount of food we and our partners can rescue from being wasted, and redirect it immediately to the local families that need it.
This year alone, since January 2017 through the end of September 2017, this program has redirected 3,043,448 pounds of food away from the landfill and onto the tables of families across WNC. This is an increase of 16% from the same time period last year, and is a true testament to the partnership we have established with local food retailers across our 16-county service area.
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FRESH FOOD: Featured Donor
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Paul Collins Produce
For those of us at the food bank, fresh produce is better than gold. Nothing excites our staff and volunteers more than receiving a donation of beautiful tomatoes in the summer, or squash and potatoes in the fall. We know that this fresh food will be going to the very families in Western North Carolina that need it most, but for whom it is most out of reach.
We would like to recognize and thank one of our major fresh produce donors, Paul Collins Produce, for their ongoing support of our work to end hunger.
In the last year, Paul Collins Produce has donated over 176,000 pounds of fresh food gold for families across WNC. Thank you, Paul Collins Produce!
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July
Asheville Tourists Food Drive (sponsored by Ingles Markets): 758 pounds
August
Southern Research Station Headquarters: 196 pounds
September
Ingles Day at the Mountain State Fair: 14,189 pounds
American Income Life: 234 pounds
Omni Grove Park Inn: 138 pounds
Judy Dinehardt’s Sister’s Birthday Party: 68 pounds
UNCA Men’s Soccer Team: 50 pounds
October
Fletcher Academy: 1,682 pounds
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Give. Volunteer. Advocate.
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