FRESH NEWS March 2022

Amid these turbulent times, MANNA wants to bring light during National Nutrition Month by celebrating food as a connector. Person to person and culture to culture, food holds a multitude of meanings. Food can represent love, community, connection and so much more. Here in WNC, we are home to a wide array of people, cultures and foods. Thanks to that diversity, our region contains a wide palette of flavors and delicious recipes.

In honor of National Nutrition Month, we wanted to highlight the culinary practices of some of our partners across WNC, including the Qualla Boundary. Below, you will find a list of recipes for dishes that our partner agencies and clients love to eat.

For a taste of some of the ingredients The Food Pantry serves, we recommend that you make their Bean Dip, which features beans (pinto, black eye or white), tomatoes, sour cream, green onions and other tasty ingredients. Learn how to make The Food Pantry's Bean Dip by watching the video above.

Cherokee Tribal Food Distribution Program's Three Sisters Salad - The Cherokee Tribal Food Distribution Program operates in the Qualla Boundary and works in partnership with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian (EBCI). The organization works to provide fast access to high quality foods and allows clients to choose which items they want to bring home.

Cherokee Tribal Foods Distribution Program provided us with their Three Sisters Salad recipe. The low-sodium recipe provides calcium, potassium, protein, iron and fiber through a minimal recipe that primarily uses three main ingredients: corn, beans and squash. The Three Sisters Salad is a fantastic compliment to any gathering or even just a healthy lunch.

At times, The Hunger Coalition will perform cooking demos at their markets using ingredients that are being distributed to clients that day. One of the recipes they have made for one of their markets is a vegetable soup. The soup features cabbage, lentils, onion, carrots, celery, garlic and other delicious ingredients. Learn how to make The Hunger Coalition's vegetable soup by watching the video above.

In these late winter months, fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to come by, especially with the increased cost of groceries we are all seeing. For our neighbors who are struggling to afford groceries, fresh produce is vital for health and wellbeing, but often is an out-of-reach luxury. MANNA FoodBank is committed to providing all families with healthy plates of nutritiously dense fresh food, all year round, all across these mountains.

To help MANNA meet this challenge of limited access to fresh produce in the winter months, we are pleased to announce our first virtual Fresh Food Drive. You can make a direct impact in the health of Western North Carolina families by helping MANNA purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, and create those healthy, colorful plates that everyone deserves.

And, thanks to an extremely generous matching gift challenge from the Rakay Family Foundation, your support of the Fresh Food Drive will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $100,000, from March 1st through April 1st!

This matching gift will help nourish families in need with a colorful bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables on their plate, and will enable MANNA to meet the challenges of limited access to local, fresh produce in the winter months and the increased costs of sourcing outside of the region.

This month, schools throughout WNC will be competing against each other to see which school can donate the most food to families across our region as part of the 13th Annual Student Food Drive.

In 2019, the Student Food Drive collectively donated 16,786 pounds of food, 81 volunteer hours and over $6,900. All together, the 2019 food drive supplied our WNC community with 13,988 meals!

Our 2022 schools are dedicated to topping the totals from 2019. If you want to help these schools and support your favorite WNC school, visit the Student Food Drive webpage to participate in the virtual food drive and learn more about how you can show your support.

After a two-year hiatus, MANNA is thrilled to announce the return of the Table For Three raffle, our hunger-ending initiative that features a grand prize of 52 restaurant gift certificates for a “meal for two” from the Asheville-area’s finest local restaurants. The pricing for the tickets ($104) is intentional. Every raffle ticket sold will provide one meal a day for more than a year for a food-insecure neighbor – hence the winning ticket equals a Table for Three.

Mark your calendars for March 15, when you'll be able to check out this year's incredible Restaurant Partners and be one of the first people to purchase your tickets. Only 500 tickets will be sold!

MANNA FoodBank is pleased to announce the second installment of “MANNA LIVE!” This series of live stream events is taking place across MANNA’s social media channels throughout 2022, and focuses on different topics related to the food bank’s daily work across 16 counties of WNC, including the Qualla Boundary.

On Friday, March 25th, join us on our Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter channels for “Get Cookin’ with MANNA + Friends!” This second event in the 2022 “MANNA LIVE!” series will be live cooking demonstrations in partnership with chefs from our food distribution partners: Chef Neil Ravenna from Haywood Pathways, and Chef Jenna Kranz from The Uncomplicated Kitchen, as well as a special cooking demonstration with Matt Parris, founder and CEO of at Roots Hummus, our live stream sponsor! We will be highlighting these cooking demos as part of National Nutrition Month’s theme, “A World of Flavor.”

“Get Cookin’ with MANNA + Friends” will take place on Friday, March 25th at noon and will be approximately forty-five minutes.

To stay up-to-date with all "MANNA LIVE!" events, and to connect with us on social media, find and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

In honor of National Nutrition Month, incorporate Nutrition Works' Berry & Barley Salad into your next dinner. The refreshing salad contains spinach, barley, blueberries and raspberries and is a tasty compliment to any meal.

Share your results with us! If you love to share healthy recipes, make a recipe your own, or simply share your photos, we'd love to see how it turns out. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Happy (and healthy) cooking!