Dear Supporter,

It’s been a mostly frosty February and for us that has meant unexpected delays and dangerous outdoor weather conditions. Luckily our dedicated call center team has been able to handle the high volumes of calls from participants inquiring about our status, and our logistics team stepped up once again to cover for colleagues and volunteers who couldn’t make it out in the snow, so that we could keep serving. This kind of flexibility and spirit of teamwork is what makes Manna rock!   
 
In this newsletter, you can read about the recent success of our Breaking Bread series, “Systems Seeded in Racism Need to Be Uprooted,” learn about how we are participating in the county’s new compost program to divert food scraps, and listen to a podcast detailing how Manna leverages partnerships throughout the County to create a food system that is just, equitable, and inclusive. You will also find several exciting personnel announcements—and let me be the first to publicly congratulate Mardia Dennis, who has been promoted to Director of Development and Communications. She is the right person at the right time for Manna Food Center. She knows our organization, believes in our vision, and has proven herself to have a solid background in all facets of a philanthropy program. 

I would also like to welcome three new Manna Board Members: Gigi G. Goin, Margaret P. Rogers and David Luckett. We are so thrilled to have such an engaged and diverse group guiding our organization as we deepen our work throughout the community. We are also deeply grateful for people like you who make our work possible. Stay safe and...
 
Masks Up!

Jackie
Jackie DeCarlo
CEO, Manna Food Center
P.S. As we look to the year ahead, please know that your donations now will ensure we are ready for uncertain times. Thank you in advance for donating by clicking HERE or by clicking the “GIVE” button at the end of this email.
During this month’s Breaking Bread session, dietetic interns Skylar and Fran covered some black contributions to agriculture throughout history. Here are some of the highlights they found through their research:

  • A common misconception about George Washington Carver is that he invented peanut butter. While he found many uses for peanuts and even worked on a rubber replacement made from peanuts, he did not invent peanut butter.
  • Fannie Lou Hamer was a woman raised by sharecroppers who saw the injustice faced by black farmers. To combat this she started the Freedom Farm Cooperative to help uplift sharecroppers and establish freedom from white landowners.

Both of these individuals and many more allowed for change to be made within agriculture that altered our current food system entirely. 
Food Scraps Recycling Program

On February 1st, Warehouse Manager Jamal Ray and his team began a new composting project with the County Department of Environmental Protection. "We've actually been composting with local farms for awhile," said Jamal. "We have a motto at Manna: waste less, feed more."

DEP estimates that over 124,000 tons of food scraps are disposed in the waste stream annually. This compost program is an important part of the County’s goal to reduce waste and recycle 70%, aiming towards zero waste. 

You can read more about composting and reducing food waste on Manna's Community Food Rescue blog.
Announcing Our New Director of Development and Communications

Mardia Dennis has served on Manna’s development team for the past five years helping craft our community engagement opportunities contributing to overall growth strategy. She brings more than 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector working directly in nonprofit fundraising, corporate partnership development and volunteer management in the greater Washington, DC area. A native of Liberia, West Africa, Mardia and her family have called the Montgomery County home for the past 25 years.
New Faces at Manna
We are excited to introduce Agar Mbianda, our new Community Engagement Manager and Reginald Brown, our new Warehouse Receiver. Agar Mbianda joins us with many years of community engagement and advocacy experience. Reggie joins Manna with extensive shipping and receiving warehouse experience. We are very happy to have them both; they will fill two exciting newly created roles within our organization, made possible by our generous donors!


Listen In:
Food for All
It was a wonderful treat for CEO Jackie DeCarlo to chat with Carrie Fox on her podcast, Mission Forward. Carrie is known to Manna as a visionary professional, a generous neighbor, an awesome mom, and we also learned she an excellent conversationalist. Click here to listen to the podcast episode. We discussed what it means to be a small but essential service provider in the midst of a pandemic, and how to balance progressivism and incrementalism in a time of great social and political upheaval. We dove into Manna's theory of change: that people cannot be full participants in society if they’re not well nourished by healthy food that they are comfortable preparing; that no one agency can end hunger alone; we must supplement our food distribution with community food education and partnerships with trusted community providers.

In the podcast, Jackie explains how a big part of Manna's equity work involves asking for guidance from our partners: Groups like Identity, who connect us with the immigrant population they serve, and the Ethiopian Community Center, who gave us honest feedback about the limitations of our food distribution model and inspired us to try a new model in which we provided vouchers to local Ethiopian grocery stores so that people could buy familiar food that felt right for them. Listen in and be sure and comment to be part of the conversation. 
 
COVID-19 Testing and Vaccine Info
Free COVID Tests

We must continue to protect one another from the virus by knowing our status. Thus, the African American Health Program along with Fit Fathers is hosting free Covid-19 testing in Montgomery County, MD. This is a quick, non-invasive, and self-administered procedure. 

For test dates and free resources please visit www.AAHPcovid.com 

Vaccine Preregistration

Montgomery County residents and workers in Phases 1B and 1C can preregister for the vaccine here.

A Preregistration Helpline for county-run clinics is available for preregistration assistance at 240-777-2982. General vaccine questions can be directed to the county at 240-777-1755. Staff members are available to callers in English and Spanish. The call center is open every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.