Manna Food Center, Inc.
fighting hunger and feeding hope in Montgomery County
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Hunger is a complex issue, and Montgomery County is especially deceptive. Our community is one of the most affluent in the US. Yet, skyrocketing housing and health care combined with ever-rising costs of food, transportation, and utilities make it difficult for many of our neighbors to feed their families. It’s estimated that 1 in every 8 people living in the United States experiences food insecurity, making it one of the most significant health crises in our nation. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as many as 100,000 Montgomery County residents were thought to lack sufficient food. Food security is a human right, but so many people in the United States are denied food with dignity due to high costs of living and transportation, complicated government programs, structural racism and xenophobia, and lack of affordable healthcare.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Food Distribution to Families
Manna’s regular food distribution program feeds nearly 3,500 households each month. Every client is referred to Manna through one of our partnerships with 260 different social agencies and community organizations. Clients pick up food every 30 days at one of Manna’s distribution locations and receive a 3-5 day supply of food including shelf stable items and a box of fresh food items.
Smart Sacks weekend bag program
In 2007, Manna embarked on a unique distribution program to address the need for food among elementary school children on the weekends. Manna introduced the Smart Sacks initiative which partners Manna, a local businesses and a nearby elementary school. Together we provide the children with a backpacks full of healthy food every Friday so they have food on the weekends when there are no school meals to sustain them.
Community Food Rescue
Community Food Rescue (CFR) is a first-of-its-kind effort to improve and scale up food rescue and distribution throughout Montgomery County. We partner with a range of hunger relief organizations, volunteers, and business to make sure that edible food reaches hungry neighbors.
Nutrition Education
Manna’s Nutrition Education Programs works to empower our neighbors with the skills to prepare healthy, nourishing meals on a budget. We host workshops, cooking demos, and store tours at centers where neighbors gather. Our new Manna Mobile Kitchen, with its certified commercial kitchen space, will expand Manna's reach for nutrition education and food distribution while strengthening the community we serve.
Where we work
Awards
4-Star Charity 2022
Charity Navigator
2022-2023 Recognition 2022
Catalogue for Philanthropy
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of people within the organization's service area accessing food aid
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Food Distribution to Families
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Number of unduplicated participates who received a monthly supply of fresh, frozen and shelf-stable food from Manna Food Center.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Manna's strategic vision is that "Our community is a place where all people, at all times, have access to safe, sufficient, nutritious food in order to lead fulfilling lives and contribute to making Montgomery County, Maryland a place where all live in dignity."
Manna is addressing the issue of hunger with new solutions centered on the participant's needs and assets and driven by data analysis. We are developing community leadership by creating opportunities for those seeking food and those donating it to come together to build community. Manna is a leader on the Montgomery Co Food Council, significantly reducing local hunger by 2020. To achieve this, we need to operate not only as a traditional food bank but as a leader of innovative programs that move away from a "charity only" mindset. Through this evolution and expansion, we are committed to a sustainable business model that demonstrates the highest nonprofit management standards.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
From 2022–2026, Manna Food Center will focus on the following three strategic priorities:
Strengthen and expand the services of Manna Food Center, collaboratively with participants and community partners, to address food insecurity and community health more effectively.
Fortify the human, infrastructure, and financial capacity and sustainability of Manna Food Center to optimize impact and support future growth.
Advocate to expand access to healthy food, promote food system resilience, and leverage our reputation to address underlying inequities
As the center of ending hunger in our county, Manna works with more than 200 social service nonprofit organizations that benefit from our efforts to rescue and redistribute food to those in need. These organizations use Manna as a referral source to their participants for food support so that they can focus resources on their core reform area such as housing, mental health, or other social service supports. We are reaching 20 prioritized under-served census tracts with the help of carefully built community partnerships, such as sharing space with houses of worship. By serving at the center of effective and innovative programming, Manna leads our community away from a scarcity mentality toward shared prosperity for all.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Manna is committed to responding to the hunger need as the face of food insecurity in Montgomery County continues to change. We have invested in state-of-the-art technology to evaluate our outputs and outcomes better. We have a high retention rate among our diverse staff and have built an organizational structure to cultivate a culture marked by dignity, hospitality, stewardship, and prosperity.
Just as important as making sure we maintain financial and human resources, we must also ensure that these resources are being used in the right ways in the right places. We engage in professionally facilitated dialogue and conversations with program participants that surface needs, interests, and capacities to build self-sufficiency and increase food security. To ensure we are delivering superior services, we train staff on new technology as needed to complete their professional goals and use data to make the best decisions for operational efficiency.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Manna is moving the needle on how our county views food insecurity by tackling hunger at its root causes and developing innovative solutions to help families keep food on the table. Annually we distribute approximately 3 million lbs of food at numerous distribution sites throughout the county. In the last few years, we launched three Choice Pantries for participants to select their items. Our School-Based Programs distribute nutritious food to over 4000 children at Montgomery County Public Schools to ensure children arrive at school ready to achieve. We offer nutrition education classes to the community and ensure that the equivalent of 1.3 million meals is served with rescued food through the Community Food Rescue network.
Our overarching goal is a hunger-free Montgomery County, and we are closer to fulfilling this mission every day through food distribution, education, and advocacy. Together we will reduce food insecurity and end chronic hunger in Montgomery County.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Manna Food Center, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 01/11/2023
Lisa Davis
Share Our Strength
Term: 2023 - 2020
Lisa Davis
Share Our Strength
Mitchell Glassman
MLG Consulting, LLC
Jorge Espinosa
TD Bank
Holly Wong
Global Health Advocacy Incubator
Jason L Mills
LRMD, P.C.
Amy Coughenour Betancourt
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Forrest A. Daniels
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Dzigbordi Egbenya-Hossoo
Community Advocate
Lorna P Forde
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Gigi Gayle Goin
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Matthew J Keene
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David Luckett
Edwards Projects Solutions
Joan Rector McGlockton
Sodexo
Jessica Nardi
AstraZeneca
Patricia Rois
Suburban Hospital
Margaret Peng Rogers
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Yong Lee
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Karen Mitchell
Consultant
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/08/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.