The 12,000-square foot warehouse in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is buzzing on a Monday afternoon, with staff and volunteers at Manna Food Center packing food boxes as cars pull up to distribute donations at local schools.
In the center of it all is Jackie DeCarlo, CEO of Manna, who says hunger isn’t just a holiday issue; it’s a year-round problem, and it’s been getting worse.
The need for food assistance, she told WTOP, has grown since the spring, when a number of pandemic-related benefits were decreased or ended.
Referring to the number of families looking for assistance each month, DeCarlo said since the spring, “We’ve been seeing in the 5,000s every month, whereas at the height of the pandemic, we were more in the 4,000s.”
Manna receives funding from a number of sources, and DeCarlo said: “Our donors in Montgomery County are always exceedingly generous,” but recent food drives and financial donations are down.
DeCarlo said it’s obvious to anyone who shops for groceries that budgets at every level are being stretched. “We’re just hoping that people who, we understand, are feeling constrained with their own food bills and such, will dig a little bit deeper” for the most vulnerable in their communities.
Thanksgiving kicks off a season of generosity, and DeCarlo said she’s thankful for that.
As she spoke, two teenagers went sprinting past. They had come with a local business to volunteer by sorting and packing food boxes.
A group from Withum, an accounting firm, tackled the job of sorting and packing boxes. Manda Bellamy, who works for Withum, said her team loved their time volunteering.
“Manna’s great,” she said. “And in just one hour, we were able to accomplish a lot!”
Bellamy’s daughter, Maya, a sophomore at Wooton High School, called the experience “awesome,” and added that the experience has showed her just how pervasive the issue of hunger is in Montgomery County. It also highlighted something else.
“It shows you that if you look closer, that there is something that you can do” to help, she said.
Like many nonprofits, Manna looks for end-of-year contributions on “Giving Tuesday,” the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
“We need food, funds, as I mentioned, but also friends. We need volunteers to help us, especially in January, February [and] March,” DeCarlo said.
