As part of Manna’s new team member orientation, employees have the opportunity to visit a few of our large food drive partners and retail partners that have been developed over the past 45 years. One unique experience is the opportunity to “ride along” with our truck to pick up food and deliver it back to Manna—this is exactly what new staffer, Tayler Paskal, was able to do during her first week with Manna.
Edgar and our Villa Team were scheduled to pick up a food drive from the Los Virgenes School District before heading over to Target, one of our Retail Partners. When the pick-ups were completed the truck was filled to the brim. To understand the value of those donations, our Manna truck holds about 4,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of 3,200 meals.
The team headed back to Manna where the food will be sorted, date checked and stored for future use. This is sometimes confusing to donors who envision food going directly onto pantry shelves. With the volume of food Manna receives, from a generous community, we have adopted a “first in, first out” policy for rotating food. This ensures that food collected months ago will stock the pantry before food that was collected last week.
Fresh items from retail partners will go directly into the pantry to help feed the estimated 15,000 food insecure households in the Conejo Valley.
During the ride-along, Tayler got to see a great deal of giving and receiving from all spectrums of the process. The visual effect of meeting our partners to seeing how grateful our clients are, to the inspiration of how our work impacts so many people is just as nourishing as the food we provide.
Each day is a confirmation of how fortunate we are to work with a group of people who care so much about those who struggle in our community.
Without Manna’s truck, the hard working driver, the warehouse team, our donors and partners, Manna would not be able to offer foods like produce, meat, frozen items, bakery items and an array of non-perishable canned and boxed goods that families, seniors and disabled people need to make hearty, nutritious meals.
It is Manna’s mission, “To Feed Hungry People in the Conejo Valley”, and by doing so we are driving hunger from our area, with the help of retailers, schools, churches and businesses who collect food.
If you are a grocery who wants to partner in a product rescue program, please contact Edgar Thatcher,
sitemgr@mannaconejo.org, or visit our website,
www.mannaconejo.org for more information on how to make food donations, monetary donations or to hold a food drive.
