Strength in Community

Thank You for Ensuring Our Neighbors Have Access to Food and Hope

Since July, we have seen an increased need for food in our region. In fact, we are continuing to serve nearly the same number of people that we served during the peak of the pandemic. In the first quarter of our current fiscal year, we served an average of over 127,000 neighbors each month.

While our region continues to experience a high need for food, MANNA has seen a decrease in food donations. With food donations down and a high demand for food amongst our neighbors throughout WNC, we have had to purchase more food than we have in years past. Similar to prices in grocery stores, the cost for the food we purchase has increased due to supply chain issues. This means that we have been sourcing more food than we have in the past through food purchase and spending significantly more for the food than we have in our previous fiscal years.

Thankfully we have an incredible, caring network of partners and friends like you who stand by our side in the work to end hunger here in WNC.

After informing our supporters of the challenges MANNA and other food banks are facing, we have seen an awe-inspiring outpouring of support from our community.

In the past month, neighbors have dropped off truck-loads of turkeys so that our neighbors could enjoy a holiday with food and hope. Schools have brought students to volunteer and help us prepare food for distribution. Our partner network—who has always put their neighbors first—has continued to make sure that food is accessible. Volunteers have driven food through the mountains, answered calls, and connected neighbors to food, sorted and packed food, and gone above and beyond anything that we could have expected! On Giving Tuesday alone, we received 274 individual donations made from our friends and supporters.

With your help, in November alone, we distributed almost 2 million pounds of food – enough to provide 1.6 million meals to our neighbors across WNC.

Seeing our community come together to meet this historic need gives us hope that we can continue to ensure that our neighbors have food and hope. We cannot thank you enough for all that you do for our neighbors in our community!

This is an amazing outpouring, and an indication of the commitment WNC has to supporting our friends and neighbors. In the face of this increased need for food, our work is far from done. With so many families still coming to MANNA and our partners for support, we continue to have many opportunities for the community to come together and lend a hand.

Get Involved

If you have been thinking of getting involved or are looking for additional ways to provide support, please consider volunteering at MANNA; donating to our Virtual Turkey Drive; sharing important resources, such as our Helpline phone number (1-800-820-1109), with your networks; or making a financial gift to MANNA.

You can also sign up for our Advocacy News and Call to Action email, and join us in raising our collective voice to positively impact our community.