Special Edition
FY 2019
Annual Report
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Friend of Manna Food Center
This summer Manna orchestrated a temporary re-location so that our warehouse could be transformed into a distribution hub. With the help of incredibly committed volunteers, faithful and generous donors, and a rock-star team of dedicated employees, Manna made it back to our home at 9311 Gaither Rd last month. But that’s not all, this summer we also created a Manna Marketplace and launched services at our new Center at the corner of Tech Rd and Rt 29 in Silver Spring.
These incredible milestones are critical to our vision of Food for All. They reflect our place-based strategy of serving in areas where poverty and food insecurity are too high. They embody our core value of “respect” as we continue to design services that respond to the requests and interests of our community. Plain and simple they indicate that we are serious about our delivering on our mission in the best way we know-how.
We could not have made it through this support without support like yours, and we hope you’ll come out and celebrate with us this weekend! Read on in this newsletter for details of our “
One Weekend: Two Celebrations
” plans for October 19 and 20
th
. Please join us and see for yourself the transformation that your support has made possible!
It wasn’t easy…our warehouse team battled high temperatures, wildlife (ask ‘em about the snakes), and lack of equipment. Other staff and volunteers, grateful for increased office space and amenities, had to cope with malfunctioning phone systems, changed commutes, and the demands of new processes to support our goal of reaching 10,000 new neighbors. We’ve had some challenges, there is no doubt.
At marketplace, I recently spoke to “Marcus,” a participant recovering from a heart attack. He spoke of his eagerness to heal and return to work. He shared his gratitude to Manna as his family struggles to get by solely on disability insurance. Before he left the Manna Marketplace he also gave me some tips on how to manage the grocery carts more efficiently! Most importantly Marcus helped me realized that all the struggles, hassles, doubts, and challenges of this summer were worth it. We are better able to serve Marcus and neighbors like him now and into the future.
A few tough months will soon be distant memories replaced by the joy of service and partnership.
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Manna in the News
We invited local news outlets to get a sneak peek at our new market. During the visit, Giant Food delivered a new market sign for our fruits and vegetables section.
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ONE Weekend, TWO Celebrations!
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Market Ribbon Cutting & Community Block Party
Saturday, October 19th
10 AM to 1 PM
Free Health Screenings: 9 AM - 3 PM
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: 10:30 AM Tours: 11 AM to 1 PM
12301
Old
Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
Join Manna for a community celebration to open our new free market and collaboration space in East County.
The ribbon cutting ceremony will be followed by market tours and a community block party featuring music, food trucks, kids games and community service providers.
Bring your family & friends to this special event! RSVP's encouraged, but not required.
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Warehouse Grand Re-Opening
Sunday, October 20th
10 AM to 12 PM
Program: 10:30 AM
Tours: 11 AM to Noon
9311 Gaither Road
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Many neighbors are familiar with Manna's warehouse through our food distribution program. We are no longer distributing food from our warehouse, having shifted distribution to a "choice" market at Gaithersburg Middle School & transformed the space to better process and sort food.
Come see what has changed! We will have a brief program and tours of the warehouse.
This is a kid-friendly event but activities will be limited.
RSVP's encouraged, but not required.
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FREE Health Screenings
Saturday, October 19
9 AM to 3 PM
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During Manna's Market Grand Opening, Cigna will provide free health screenings for
adults
on 4 health numbers:
> Blood pressure
> Cholesterol
> Blood sugar
> Body mass index (BMI)
No appointment or insurance required.
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Community Food Rescue Week
October 20-26, 2019
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For 2019 Community Food Rescue Week, members of the community will glean apples from a local orchard, learn how to compost food scraps, cook with recovered food and much more.
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Have you ever asked yourself, “Where did the time go?” Time has definitely gone quickly for Manna Food Center but the year has brought many rewarding successes that we are proud to share in this annual report. During this past fiscal year, we addressed many new challenges presented to us by the changing environment in Montgomery County, Maryland and the country. Whether dealing with a Federal government shut-down or convening conversations on racial equity and social justice, our vision of a county where everyone lives in dignity and no one goes hungry remains steadfast. This year we reached 34,250 neighbors by distributing 3.1 million pounds of nutritious food while also educating students of all ages through Manny, our “kitchen on wheels.”
With the support of our Board of Directors, donors, volunteers, and local policymakers, we laid the groundwork of a
“Food for All”
Capital Campaign which will allow Manna to reach 10,000 new hungry children, seniors and working poor by the end of 2020. This bold approach is focused on offering healthy, tasty, culturally appropriate food to high-poverty neighborhoods. We are also committed to strengthening those communities in partnership with organizations that share our values.
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The Roots that Deserve Some Spotlight
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New blog from Cynthia, our Community Food education manager:
If I were to ask you what your favorite root vegetables are most would answer: potatoes, carrots, garlic, and maybe even beets. These root vegetables are typically the star root vegs that steal the show. Let me introduce or reintroduce you to some of the unsung heroes of the root group:
parsnips, turnips, rutabagas
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Gingered Root Vegetables with Cabbage
Verduras De Raíz Jengibre Con Col
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This dish of potatoes, cabbage, and carrots cooked in a mildly spicy and extremely flavorful mix of ginger, turmeric, and pepper is inspired by a traditional Ethiopian stew called Atakilt Wat. It is definitely one of those easy dishes that tastes like more than its individual parts.
Source:
Lindsey Seegers
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 potatoes, washed and cut into bite-size pieces
- 3 carrots, washed and cut into bite-size pieces
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 head green cabbage, cored and cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 can coconut milk, optional
Directions
- Melt butter or heat oil in a large frying pan or medium pot over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 3 minutes.
- Add ginger, turmeric, and pepper. Stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add potatoes, carrots, and broth. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer, and cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Add cabbage, stir to combine, cover, reduce heat to medium low, and cook until completely wilted, about 8 minutes. If using add coconut milk and heat through.
- If necessary, cook with the cover off to reduce liquid before serving.
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Breaking Bread This Afternoon!
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Breaking Bread has been on hiatus as Manna gets settled into its new administrative offices. We will resume our monthly Continuing the Conversation meetings on
October 16, 2019 at 4pm
in our new office at
12301 Old Columbia Pike, Suite 200, Silver Spring, MD
with new faces and voices. Mark your calendar now to join us in our ongoing conversation about new solutions to ending the experience of food insecurity in Montgomery County.
RSVP
so we can plan to have enough refreshments for all.
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Meet Douglas
We welcome Douglas Whittaker, our new School-Based Programs Clerk. He is responsible for food inventory and distribution for our Smart Sacks program. Douglas works closely with Karena to provide weekend bags of food to 2,910 elementary school students each week.
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Available Volunteer Opportunities
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Want to be a Manna Market Volunteer?
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We are excited to announce that Manna’s Market in Silver Spring has opened! We are currently scheduling individual volunteers to volunteer as Market Volunteers
and Market Reception Volunteers. There are weekday, weeknight and some weekend shifts.
Market Volunteers
will help our participants in the market and assist in restocking shelves.
Volunteer must be 16 or older or 14 and older with a parent
.
This opportunity is now open to small groups (up to 5 volunteers) during the daytime!
Market Reception Volunteers
will primarily help to greet, check-in, and schedule participants through our Salesforce database.
Volunteer must be 18 or older and be able to commit to a weekly schedule.
Please contact the Volunteer Manager,
katie@mannafood.org
for a full description of activities and available shifts.
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Warehouse
Our warehouse is open
!
Volunteers help, Mon-Fri from 9am-2pm, pack and sort food, bag produce and meat, and take in food donations.
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Bi-lingual Spanish, French, Amharic and Haitian skills are a plus.
New Location
: 12301 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring
Office volunteers (18 years of age or older) support our referral program which enables participants/clients to receive food from us. Volunteers receive referral information by phone, fax, and email and input it into our participant database. This allow us to determine how many boxes need to be prepared each day and create a sign-in/out sheet for client pick-up.
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Satellite Distribution Centers
Volunteers needed to help distribute prepacked boxes, assist clients to their car, and take in food donations.
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30pm-7:30pm
Gaithersburg Middle School
Wednesdays 3pm-7pm
Clifton Park Baptist Church
(formerly Long Branch Satellite)
Thursdays 1:30pm-5pm
Germantown
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Food Runners
Join Community Food Rescue (CFR), Montgomery County's network for food recovery. Help deliver rescued food to area shelters.
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Nutrition
Volunteers
Manna's free nutrition programming makes crucial health information more accessible to communities in need. You can help fight hunger and learn new skills as a nutrition education volunteer!
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A Heartfelt Thank You to Our Donors
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We extend a warm and sincere THANK YOU to all of the organizations and businesses that have donated food and funds between August 16, 2019 - September 15, 2019.
Without your incredible generosity, we would not be able to feed families in our community.
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ACC National Capital Region
Americana Centre Condo, Inc.
APA Inc.
Bethesda Central Farmers' Market
Bethesda Co-Op
Boyds Presbyterian
Butlers Orchard
Capital Area Food Bank
Carin & Company, LLC
Central Farm Markets at Westfield Montgomery Mall
Century Distributors, Inc.
Christ The King
Church of The Redeemer
City of Gaithersburg
City of Rockville
DC Metro Sai Samsthan
Department of Finance- Montgomery County
Department of Health & Human Services
Donaldson Group, LLC
Emmanuel Lutheran Church
First Fruits Farm
Garden Club of College Gardens
Giant Food
Grace United Methodist Church
Great American Restaurants
Greater Washington Community Foundation
Harris Teeter
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Imperfect Produce
Larry E. Paul Certified Financial Planner
Maryland WIC Program
Montgomery County
Montgomery County Master Gardeners
Montgomery County Road Runners
Mt. Calvary Baptist Church
Norman's Farm Markets
Oasis Farms
Olney Farmers & Artists' Market
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Response Tech
Rockville Farmers' Market
Roots
Safeway
Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, Inc
St. Francis Episcopal Church
St. James Episcopal Church
St. Jude's Catholic Church/Shrine of St. Jude
State of Maryland
TD Charitable Foundation
The Hwang Foundation
Trader Joe's
Wegmans
Westleigh Recreation Club
Whole Foods Market
YSRCP Maryland
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If you're interested in donating food, making a financial contribution, or volunteering, please contact us at:
Manna Food Center
9311 Gaither Road
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
301-424-1130
Remember to support Manna through your workplace giving campaign.
United Way # 8846 - CFC # 23028
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