This time of year is when people start thinking of Thanksgiving and the holidays, also known as the Thankful Time of Year.
Grace Evangelical Congregational Church’s food pantry Manna is thankful for the community that helps them to serve their neighbors. The Kutztown area food pantry is also thankful for all those that donate money and items and their time, so they can continue to serve in their mission to help others and make sure that no one goes hungry.
There are items that are always needed and often not available such as cleaning items, health & beauty items and paper goods. These donations are also desired. To donate items, volunteer, make a monetary contribution, call the church office at Grace Evangelical Congregational Church, 610-683-3340.
Serving the surrounding communities, Manna wants to be known more to serve more families.
Manna started in the mid 1980s as an organization called Desert Highway, which had stopped operation for a few years and rekindled its mission as Manna, around April 2004. For 12 years, Manna has acquired food from the Greater Berks Food Bank which includes food sponsored by the federal and state funding and local donations. Grace Church also receives donations of money, items dropped at the church and food from local farmers. There are three grocery stores that also provide many items to the food pantry including Weis Markets in Kutztown, Giant Foods in Kutztown and Giant Foods in Trexlertown.
Grace EC Church has Manna as a line item on their church budget. They see that there is food provided for all the families they serve, as Grace Church members are dedicated to the needs of the people in their community. It is a great priority to the church, but they cannot do it alone. They need help. Help is most appreciated in the form of money. One pound of food can be purchased for only 19 cents. Grace Church purchases two tons of food for the food pantry EACH MONTH! Each month, the needs of the community grow. At the start, Manna served only 35 families. They served 95 families at the October 2015 distribution.
The support of local groups and organizations is greatly needed. Cub Pack 180, Kutztown University Students and sororities, the Lyons Club and people from town are much appreciated when they volunteer. Manna is always in need of more volunteers.
For the monthly distribution, it is almost always the first Saturday of the month (unless that day is a holiday). Help is needed the Friday night before, from approximately 6:30-8:30 p.m., the day of the distribution from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The more help they have, the quicker they get finished. Volunteers are invited to come for part or all of the time. Each hour of service is appreciated.
The ability of clients to have a “shopping experience” is part of the uniqueness of this food pantry. Clients have some limits of some items and there are no limits to other items. A client can use a shopping cart to go through the food shelves and choose items that their family enjoys. This means that no one goes home with items their family does not prefer and it assures that all food leaving the pantry will not go to waste. By offering a shopping experience, the pantry client can actually stretch their food farther by selecting items that go with items they already have at home, as well as choosing food products that fit their dietary needs such as diabetes or salt restricted diets.
When clients participate in the food distribution at Manna, they are giving a time to arrive. The times are scattered so that no one waits for hours in a line and so that they can serve as many people as possible in the space they have available. While waiting, the clients sign in and take a seat. The Manna Preacher, as he is known, takes time to welcome everyone, ask about their lives and help give encouragement and support to those that need it. There are words of encouragement, acknowledgement of difficult times, thanks to God for all He provides and the work He does through everyone that share in the mission of Manna. Clients have commented that Manna helps to take some of the daily stress from them by not worrying about the need for food each day.
After each client is directed to the church social hall, they are recorded into the system so the Greater Berks Food Bank knows how many people and what age grouping they are in and where they are from so the food bank has completed paperwork for their mission to serve the local food pantries. After a moment at the welcome table, the clients are given a shopping cart and directions to the different staging areas for collecting their food items. The volunteers at each station have smiles on their faces, a welcoming tone in their voice and they share with the client’s information about the items in their area. As the client shops, they meet the end of the line and additional volunteers pack their food in bags and it moves to the staging area where it is all ready to be delivered to their vehicles. The volunteers at the end of the line carry the packages to the client’s vehicle and warmly wish them well.
The entire process, from entry to finish, is a heartfelt experience. All of the people that volunteer at Manna are devoted to serving others and committed to what Manna stands for. At one time, Manna was located off of Noble Street in Kutztown and was 1/3 of the size it is now. It is now on Main Street in Kutztown. Currently, Manna serves 80 to 95 families each month which is approximately 280 people.
