Asheville, North Carolina-based Ingles Markets and Manna Food Bank have been working together for more than 35 years to fight hunger in Western North Carolina. Food insecurity continues to have a grip on the area and, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, now more than ever this partnership is helping families throughout the mountain communities.
What started as a twice a week pick up at the Ingles Warehouse has grown into local food drives, the Ingles Giving Tree, Capitol support and one of the largest food salvage operations in the country known as The Ingles Reclamation Center. When 2020 began, meal donations from Ingles had reached 43,541,048. That is 3,956 meals per day every day for more than 30 years.
“We couldn’t be prouder of the relationship we have formed with Manna Food Bank over the last several decades. Manna continues to be a driving force in the battle against food insecurity throughout Western Carolina counties. We look forward to continuing this partnership for many more years to come” said Ron Freeman, CFO of Ingles Markets.
Now, Ingles is launching an awareness campaign that features the impact of the 35-year partnership and encourages the community to help support Manna Food Bank. Television spots encouraging these donations will begin running the first week of May. Now more than ever community support is critical to meeting the needs of WNC.
Ingles Markets is a supermarket chain operating in six Southeastern States, with 198 stores.
As an accredited member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization, the mission of Manna Food Bank is to involve, educate and unite people in the work of ending hunger in Western North Carolina. Manna serves more than 200 community-based non-profit food assistance partner agencies in 16 Western North Carolina counties and has distributed more than 19.8 million pounds of food.
