Manna Gala raises $250,000 for Food 4 Kids program

NORTHERN MICHIGAN — At their inaugural Manna Gala on June 20, the Manna Food Project raised $250,000 to help support its Food 4 Kids program.

The event also helped shed light on the growing crisis of food insecurity in Northern Michigan. As the cost of living outpaces wages in the tri-county service area, officials said more and more families are turning to the charitable food network to keep food on the table.

“I have learned that the signs of food scarcity and hunger are usually subtle, but prevalent,” said Erin Cluley, site coordinator for Communities in Schools of Northwest Michigan, in a press release.

Cluley works at East Jordan Elementary School and presented the keynote address at the Manna Gala.

“The effects of poverty can often be hard to notice and see," she added. "And I’ve learned that homelessness doesn’t usually mean living on the street corner. Here in Northwest Michigan, it often means you’re living in a camper with your entire family and probably have no running water. When we run into these types of situations with our students, it can feel really overwhelming for those of us who are there to help. But having a community partner as reliable, available and effective as the Manna Food Project, brings such a huge level of relief to those of us in our positions and to the families that we all serve.”

On average, one in five children in Michigan are at risk of hunger. In some Northern Michigan communities, that number is much higher. At East Jordan Elementary School, 52 percent of their students need additional food assistance through Manna’s Food 4 Kids backpack program.

This program supplies bags of food to 30 organizations across Antrim, Charlevoix and Emmet counties, including elementary schools, preschools and head start programs, and public libraries. Backpacks include meals and snacks for over the weekend when kids aren’t getting meals at school. The backpacks are now available throughout the summer. In 2023, Manna distributed over 61,000 backpacks, which cost over $250,000 in food alone.

The Doll-Loesel Foundation offered a $100,000 matching donation, and the Manna Food Project raised another $153,000 at the gala thanks to the attendees and event sponsors.

Officials said the Food 4 Kids program will now go into the next school year with proper funding and with the ability to include higher quality food items.

“I am in awe of the incredible support we have from our community,” said Carrie Klingelsmith, executive director at the Manna Food Project, in a statement. “Once people understand that a lot of children in our community don’t have regular access to food, or that their parents are skipping meals just so that their kids can eat, it’s easy to join the fight against hunger. It really takes everyone working together to address food insecurity.”

To learn more about the Manna Food Project, visit mannafoodproject.org. If you are in need of food assistance, call (231) 347-8852.