Company Spotlight: MANNA
By: Serious Business
Tags: Helping Others, Conscious Leadership, Impact, Food

Making an impact through food in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

As part of our theme for this month, Impact, we have chosen to spotlight a company in which we feel is truly making a positive impact on its community: Manna. We sat down with a member of their team (over skype that is), to discuss what exactly Manna is doing and how feeding a stranger goes beyond just eliminating hunger. See below for the transcribed interview:

What is the story of Manna? How did it start?

Our website says it best…“MANNA began in 1990 when seven members of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia began delivering meals to their neighbors dying of AIDS. It was at this time, people diagnosed with AIDS found themselves incredibly ill, isolated, and in need of hope. MANNA’s founders fulfilled this need with nourishment — giving love and community to those who needed it most.

In the 30 years since our founding, MANNA has stayed true to its original mission of providing nourishment to our critically ill neighbors. As our knowledge of utilizing food as medicine deepened, our program evolved to include medically-tailored meals created in our in-house kitchen and professional nutrition counseling. After recognizing the widespread need for our services, MANNA began serving anyone at nutritional risk due to critical illness in 2006. Since then, MANNA has served clients with over 85 different illnesses. In 30 years, our program has improved the health and quality of life of more than 31,000 of our Philadelphia area neighbors with more than 16,380,000 medically nourishing meals.”

What does your role entail at Manna? While we’re on the theme, how do you impact Manna as a member of the team?

The bulk of my job is making sure the day-to-day operations are running smoothly — this includes managing and routing 5 staff drivers and 10–15 volunteer drivers, getting our trucks packed for the next day, and putting out any fires (literal or figurative) that pop up.

Outside of my job description, I view my role here as having two major parts. The first is with regard to operational or procedural efficiencies and improvements. Asking & answering questions like “What can we do better or more efficiently?”, “Why did this mistake happen and how can we implement procedures to correct for it?”, and “What actions can I take to align my department with our larger organizational goals?”. The second major lens through which I view my role is from a relationship standpoint. One of the highest priorities for me on a daily basis is relationship and trust-building, fostering communication and trust between departments and coworkers, ensuring that no one team member is tasked with taking on more than is reasonable and just generally making sure that everyone is happy to be working at MANNA that day. I view my role…as a human… as being an agent for love and connection and humanity and I do my best to bring that into my work life, as well.

Providing a basic need to those less fortunate is seemingly a simple gesture. How does the impact go beyond just a meal?

Great question to which I could probably speak endlessly…haha… Simply put, “Nutrition as medicine” means that in order to survive, to fight the disease that is threatening your very existence, you have to be putting the right building blocks into your body in order to recover and continue the fight. One thing that we do that I absolutely love is to celebrate each client’s birthday. Each client receives a cake and a card on their delivery day, and I think that’s really what it’s all about to me — more birthdays.

Being a non-profit organization, how does marketing work for you guys? Is there a budget for those activities?

Our organization’s lifeblood is our volunteer base. Without the volunteers we get on a daily basis, we would not be able to provide the same level of service to our clients. And because we are a local organization, most of our reach with regards to recruiting new volunteers and filling in time slots ends up being through social media.

What are your communication channels? What has been done to reach your audience to support the cause?

A lot of our new client reach is grassroots/word of mouth; people telling others of the services that they receive and then being referred. MANNA also has historically had strong roots in the Philly area and is well known for the work we do!

What is one major insight you have gained from working at Manna?

The little things add up. Whether it’s a birthday cake, a familiar face dropping off your weekly meals, a friendly voice on the other end of the line when you’re having an off day, or just the basic sustenance you need to keep the fight going, they all add up. So while a singular part of what you’re doing may not seem to mean much at the moment, you just haven’t seen the bigger picture yet.

To find out more information about MANNA or how you can support them, please visit https://www.mannapa.org/.