Only one month after a Pooler meals pantry needed to transfer out of the church it had operated in for the final three years, Loaves and Fishes has discovered a brand new residence.
Volunteer coordinator Bonnie O’Leary and Board President C.H. Brewer repeatedly described the relocation to a MANA Nutrition warehouse in Pooler as a “blessing.”
In March, First Baptist Church knowledgeable Loaves and Fishes that it had 90 days to vacate the 2 rooms behind the church that the nonprofit had been renting for $300 a month since 2022. The pantry, which served meals on two Saturdays a month, stopped service on June 28.
The group was capable of safe the house at MANA by a couple of connections who helped put them involved with the administration.
“It was a [conversation] of y’all are eager to do the identical factor that we’re eager to do,” Brewer stated. “We need to assist hungry individuals which can be in want of meals.”
Though the brand new location at 5212 Outdated Louisville Highway is freed from cost for Loaves and Fishes, it’s much less central than its earlier heart for serving meals.
“We’re not in the midst of a neighborhood, a bit bit extra site visitors,” Brewer stated. “However what I inform all people is that we’re open, and we are able to serve the wants in Pooler.”
Final Saturday, O’Leary stated that she and some different volunteers made not less than 300 calls notifying folks that they had been again in enterprise.
For the final 15 years, 10 to fifteen volunteers have been serving greater than 200 individuals a month. Additionally they share the house with the Lions Membership and Backpack Buddies of Pooler, which Loaves and Fishes began in 2012.
Backpack Buddies packs about 800 baggage a month, feeding 200 children a month in order that they’ll eat on the weekends throughout the college 12 months. The brand new house can be shared between the three.
The grand re-opening of the pantry can be at 10 a.m. to midday, Saturday, Aug. 9.
The MANA Vitamin Pooler Manufacturing facility expects to be on-line subsequent 12 months producing meals to assist and shield youngsters who’re liable to malnutrition and starvation.
Serving to children overseas and right here at residence
Loaves and Fishes will occupy the house for the subsequent six months as MANA builds out its manufacturing facility. Then, Brewer stated, MANA will transfer the nonprofit to a different a part of its facility.
“Although this house might not be constructed to do a pantry, if we now have house, and we are able to make it out there, we’ll,” stated MANA Logistics Director Jeff Howell. “So, as we’re making an attempt to assist the children world wide, we’re additionally capable of do a bit right here at residence.”
MANA produces ready-to-use therapeutic meals (RUTF) in a 315,000-square-foot-warehouse distribution heart in Pooler, the place the group expanded in April. RUTFs are peanut butter-based meal alternative merchandise with protein, nutritional vitamins and milk powder that complement childhood diet throughout the globe.
MANA sells to USAID, UNICEF and the World Meals Programme. The nonprofit was a type of affected by Trump Administration cuts to USAID in March. Thirty-five p.c of MANA’s able to field and ship orders, totaling $12 million, dried up in a single day. Though the contracts had been finally reinstated per week later, $50 million price of meals has been sitting within the Pooler facility for months, according to The Washington Post.
Destini Ambus is the overall project reporter for the Savannah Morning Information, overlaying the municipalities, and neighborhood and cultural applications. You’ll be able to attain her at DAmbus@gannett.com
This text initially appeared on Savannah Morning Information: Pooler’s Loaves and Fishes finds new home with MANA nutrition
