New Building Made Possible with Support from Community Foundations

When MANNA lost our buildings—and virtually everything inside—to Helene’s devastating flooding, a miracle was already in motion.

MANNA had long needed a much larger facility, and we were in the process of purchasing an existing warehouse to upfit into a fully functioning food bank. A number of incredible donors and partners rallied around us to support that vision, so we thankfully already had the seed money to purchase the facility.

When Helene happened, our CEO acted swiftly to secure an emergency lease at the facility. Thanks to the dedication of our staff and volunteer team, we were able to begin receiving and distributing food within days.

The next enormous challenge was raising the funds to upfit and update our new infrastructure. Once again, we were beyond grateful for the outpouring of support that we received. Many wonderful foundations, corporate partners and individuals stepped forward, bringing us closer to closing our huge funding gap.

Then came another transformative moment: our longtime partner, the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, joined forces with the North Carolina Community Foundation to help make MANNA whole again. Together, they committed the last $7 million needed to close our remaining funding gap.

Food insecurity in WNC has increased dramatically since Hurricane Helene. Our renovations are underway to bring this building to its full potential, but this larger warehouse will allow MANNA to continue scaling our operations to meet this need.

MANNA cannot possibly express our gratitude for this grant opportunity—which will usher in a new chapter of stability, resilience, and hope for MANNA and the communities we serve for decades to come!