In late winter of 1982, Scott Rogers of ABCCM, Stewart Humphrey of Eliada Home for Children, Ed Pray of the Hunger Awareness Group, and several other representatives from the community came together to envision a food bank that would serve all of far western North Carolina.
During these first months of planning, the vision came into focus. Eliada Home offered a large space in an unoccupied building for storage. Robert Bell of Bell Distributing Company offered to donate food regularly. By-laws were written. A name -- Mountain Area Nutritional Needs Alliance (MANNA) -- was chosen. The Red Cross offered free office space for six months. A seed money grant from the Presbyterian Church was secured. The first Director, Carolyn Wallace, was hired. MANNA was on its way!
After months of planning and organizing, the first MANNA Board of Directors was established in March 1983.
With humble beginnings of just 16 partner agencies -- 14 in Buncombe County, 1 in Henderson County, and 1 in Madison County -- MANNA began putting food on neighbors' tables for the first time. The biggest donation was a tractor-trailer load of Campbell's soup. It took 20 volunteers 5 hours to unload that first donation into the warehouse!
Throughout the first half of 1984, MANNA continued to grow. The Community Foundation and the Junior League of Asheville awarded significant grants that allowed MANNA to expand its partners from 16 to 26. Thousands of dollars worth of long-distance transportation was donated by trucking companies. Eliada Home donated the use of a fork lift, in addition to the warehouse cooler and freezer space. ABCCM donated an oil stove for heat. Other food banks -- Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Greenville, SC -- began to share food with MANNA.
MANNA became more well-known in the community as the year went on. A successful dance benefit was held at the Greek Community Center. Small, individual donations began to roll in. Over a thousand hours of volunteer assistance came from Sunday School classes, youth groups, partner agencies, and individuals in the community. MANNA was developing as a grass-roots local community effort to help feed neighbors in need.
The number of MANNA's partner agencies grew from 26 to 60, with partners now across 12 Western North Carolina counties. Fred Anderson Nissan contributed a year's free lease on a 6-wheel truck for food pick-ups. MANNA developed a contractual relationship with Metrolina Food Bank in Charlotte, which allowed MANNA to receive food and food-related products from the national food banking organization, Second Harvest.
In 1985, Ingles Markets approached MANNA about donating food from its central warehouse and several of its local grocery stores. This first donation almost 40 years ago has now grown into the Ingles Reclaim Center, the hub of MANNA's warehouse and a critical piece of MANNA's operations. Because of this unique partnership, millions of pounds of food come through the warehouse every year on the way to feed neighbors across our mountains.
As the year moved along, the first warehouse manager was hired and food donations continued to increase. United Way became an important partner when they awarded MANNA a significant grant and formally accepted MANNA into its family of agencies.
In just three years, the phenomenal growth of MANNA's work meant that the current warehouse was no longer big enough. The need to own rather than borrow things like fork lifts, coolers and freezers, and trucks became apparent. The search was on for a space that MANNA could call their own. But where?
