Manna On Main Street

Manna's kitchen (soup kitchen): in fye 2024, manna set a record with 151,627 meals served, shattering last year's record of 109,096 meals served. Manna staff and volunteers utilize donated food - from grocery stores, individuals, businesses and faith-based groups running food drives and other community partners - to prepare each and every one of these meals. We distribute to-go meals seven days a week, and we serve sit-down hot meals four days a week. Every day, we feed approximately 400 people through a combination of to-go meals and sit-down meals. Both to-go meals and sit-down meals feature a variety of meal options, including meat, pork, seafood and vegetarian thanks to manna's generous food donors, whose food donations account for over 90% of the food used to prepare the meals.

Emergency financial aid: in fye 2024 manna stewarded over 86,000 of its own funds to meet critical needs for 404 households living in the north penn region. A significant portion of this funding helps pay for rent or utility bills for low- and moderate-income households struggling to maintain their housing and keep their utilities on, preventing further hardship for the household. Most recipients of manna's emergency financial aid live in the north penn school district boundaries within montgomery county. From october 2023-january 2024, manna distributed the remaining funds allocated to manna from the your way home emergency rent and utility coalition program. These funds went to qualifying households in montgomery county to prevent evictions and stablize housing.

All other accomplishments: common grounds foodservice training program is manna's free, 2-month workforce development program designed to move people living in economic instability to sustainable employment. Common grounds addresses two of the root causes of food insecurity: unemployment and underemployment. In support of manna's kitchen, common grounds trainees learn back-of-house skills and techniques in a commercial kitchen while working alongside manna's culinary staff to prepare over 700 daily contract meals benefitting 350 seniors through meals on wheels (manna provided over 150,000 meals on wheels and other contract meals in fye 2024). In service to common grounds cafe and catering, social enterprises that serve the general public, the trainees learn how to prepare individual breakfast and lunch orders, how to provide excellent customer service and how to operate a point-of-sale system. Trainees participate in "power skills" classes that focus on additional skill building such as time management, conflict resolution, resume preparation and interview practice to increase the likelihood they can obtain and maintain a living-wage job upon graduation from the program. Since the end of 2016 through september 2024, 133 individuals have graduated from the program, with 105 graduates employed or enrolled in higher education at the time of graduation (a 79% job placement rate). All common grounds graduates leave manna with servsafe certification.