Together we can work to solve hunger
in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

 

Manna Programs and Services

To affect lasting change in our community, we must provide our neighbors with nutritious food and address their hunger-related needs. We do this through our Emergency Food Assistance Program at our pantry and our 17 specialty programs with 24 community partners. Our programs/partnerships allow us to go outside our four walls and into the community to partner with other organizations and agencies to reach some of the most vulnerable people in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. All food bags and boxes are provided at no charge to clients or partners and are packed to USDA Standards for a Healthy Diet, with the exception of the School Resource Officer Food Program which utilizes grab-n-go, ready-to-eat food items.

Emergency Food Assistance Program
Food assistance at Manna's pantry is provided by appointment only. To learn more about appointment availability, please call 850-432-2053. 
Tummy Bundles
Tummy Bundles is a collaboration with Boys & Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast that, since 2016, has provided seven healthy weekend meals to students participating in their after-school programs. The program expanded in 2021 from a single school-site distribution to now include the Boys & Girls Pensacola Club in Englewood, making nutritious food available to dozens of Escambia County children in need every week of the schoolyear. Tummy Bundles is designed to alleviate the excess burden of hunger for children participating in the program and allow them to focus on improving academic and health outcomes. For families in need of additional support, Manna provides the entire family unit with bags of healthy food.  
Healthy Seniors Food Program at Westminster Village
The Healthy Seniors Food Program at Westminster Village provides a 10-day supply of healthy food each month to more than 120 senior citizens residing in a low-income rental retirement community who must often choose between buying food or medication. The program improves their access to healthy food and in turn improves the nutritional quality of their diet. In our most recent food security survey conducted with seniors in the program, 97% told us the nutritional quality of their diet had improved!
Monthly Senior Food Program
Manna provides additional monthly support to vulnerable seniors through the Monthly Senior Food Program at Main Pantry. The program supports approximately 65 low-income senior citizens with 10 days’ worth of nutritious food each month. Like the Healthy Seniors Food Program, the program improves their access to healthy food and the nutritional quality of their diet. If a senior in the program is a grandparent raising grandchildren, Manna will provide food to the entire household.
School Resource Officer Food Program

Manna partners with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, the Gulf Breeze Police Department, the Pensacola Police Department, and the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office to carry out the School Resource Officer Food Program. The program provides School Resource Officers (SRO) with food in more than 30 schools across the two-county area for students who’ve identified themselves as being in need. SROs utilize the food as a tool: first, to fulfill an immediate need – food; then to have deeper conversations with students about life at home, academic performance, behavior, and more. In addition, SROs have identified whole family units struggling with food insecurity during home visits. We supply each family member with a 5-day supply of healthy groceries, and just as important, the relationship between law enforcement and the family is strengthened.

Backpack4Teens
Backpacks4Teens is a collaboration with the Santa Rosa County School District that enables trained school personnel to connect homeless and Unaccompanied Youth, as well as Emergent Needs students, (primarily 6 - 12-year olds) with Manna’s resources. Food is a critical stabilizing factor for these students, and it reduces the likelihood that they will engage in risky or illegal behavior to obtain food. Through this partnership, Manna has also provided food bags to the school district for families who are found to be in need of additional support.
Cantonment Improvement Committee
Manna provides food bags of healthy groceries containing more than 3,375 meals each month to Cantonment Improvement Committee to support their food distributions at Carver Park in North Escambia County.
Food as Medicine
In partnership with the American Heart Association, Manna supports a Food as Medicine program that benefits the patients of four local healthcare providers: Health and Hope Clinic, Community Health Northwest Florida, Ascension Sacred Heart, and Baptist Hospital Heart Failure Clinic. The program is designed to support individuals who may benefit from incorporating fresh produce in their diet to both address food insecurity and improve their health outcomes (blood pressure, A1C, body weight, etc.). Our friends at The Farm supply fresh produce boxes twice each month, and Manna supplements the boxes with bags of nonperishable groceries for each patient and members of their household.
Gulf Coast Kid's House and Santa Rosa Kids' House
Our partnerships with Gulf Coast Kid’s House and Santa Rosa Kid’s House provide emergency food bags at their facilities to distribute to the families and children they serve. Prior to the collaboration, advocates would have to refer families to other resources for emergency food. This presented a problem, especially when children were placed on the weekend or in the middle of the night, resulting in a lapse of time when the children and their guardians could access emergency food assistance. The partnership now provides families in need with immediate access to healthy food.
Ministry Village at Olive

Manna provides healthy food bags to clients enrolled in Ministry Village at Olive’s Tender Hearts Caring Hands financial stability class. Furnishing groceries alleviates additional financial burden as well as provides a meaningful opportunity to put the class experience into practical application by offering an instant reduction in expenses. Families may utilize that money for savings, debt reduction, or making other needed purchases.

Child Nutrition Program
In partnership with Backpack Project USA (an Escambia County nonprofit) and the American Heart Association, Manna supports a Child Nutrition Program that benefits approximately 550 Escambia County students every week who are found to be in need of food assistance by their teachers or other school personnel. Prior to implementation of the program, students typically received 7-8 items in a bag that consisted of things like ramen noodles, beanie weenies, chips, and pop tarts. Now, students enrolled in the program receive a bag of nutritious food every week of the school year that includes a healthy, balanced menu of 13-14 food items including protein, vegetables, fruit, grains, and dairy.
Pensacola State College
In partnership with Pensacola State College, Manna provides the Pirates CARE Team – a group of faculty and staff that assists students who are experiencing crisis or difficulty outside the classroom – with healthy food bags for currently enrolled students and their families at all three campus locations. The food is supplemented with nutritional information and linkage to additional community resources.
Rally Pensacola
Manna partners with Rally Pensacola – a foundation that works to raise awareness and funds for childhood cancer research, and to support families with children fighting cancer – to provide emergency food assistance as needed to families with children to support them through treatment, remission, and recovery.
Covenant Care
Manna provides the social workers of Covenant Care with food bags to support the individuals, families, and caregivers they serve in Northwest Florida. Food bags packed to USDA Standards for a Healthy Diet are supplied to Covenant as needed and kept on-hand for quick, easy access and distribution.
Volunteers of America – Pensacola Veterans Village
Manna regularly provides healthy food bags to veterans residing at Volunteers of America’s Pensacola Veterans Village to alleviate their expenses and improve the nutritional quality of their diets during their time in transitional housing, preparing them for a life of independence.
Children’s Home Society
Manna provides Children’s Home Society social workers and resource navigators with healthy food bags each week to support the children and families they serve. When they find that a child and his/her family is struggling with food insecurity, social workers and resource navigators facilitate the delivery of food bags to children and their families. Each family member is supplied with a 5-day food bag in an effort to stabilize the family unit.
ReEntry Alliance Pensacola (REAP)
Manna provides ReEntry Alliance Pensacola (REAP) and the justice-involved citizens they serve with healthy food bags monthly to support them on their pathway to success – self-sufficient, crime-free, and productive.
AmeriCorps VISTA
Through Habitat for Humanity of Pensacola's AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) program, Manna provides a 10-day supply of nutritious food monthly to VISTAs participating in the program to help offset their cost-of-living expenses.

Manna helped 86,890 in 2023. But we still need your help.
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