Meet Generosity in Action:  Terry Moerler

On Sunday August 2, 2015, Terry Moerler hosted a wine and cheese open house to benefit Manna.  Her invitation to friends offered to exchange a glass of wine for a can of food.  She added cheese and live music to the event which attracted 70 guests, including Manna board members Anup Thakkar, Veronica Ellis, and Bob Engler. Terry said that she decided to do the open house in August because, as a long time Manna champion, she knows that our number of food drives significantly decrease in the summer months. Owner of two successful real estate companies in town, including Keller Williams, the now largest agency in the Conejo Valley, Terry routinely invites her clients to donate food to Manna in innovative ways.  She’s passed her experiences along during her nationwide speaking engagements and has inspired many realtors to adopt similar programs in support of local food banks across the country. Terry’s passion for Manna began in 1990 when she first visited to deliver food donations from the Westlake Rotary Club.  During that visit she saw one of her real estate clients, an engineer from Newbury Park who had been laid off, selecting food from the pantry.  She says it was then that she understood the simple fact that adverse circumstances can impact any of us, that hunger is not just a dense urban center problem, but is in our own backyard as well, and that Manna was a place people could turn to for help.  She’s been one of Manna’s biggest supporters ever since, advocating, promoting and collecting thousands of pounds of food to help stock Manna’s pantry during the lean times of the year. Terry says she believes that one person can make a difference.  And she does.