While the short-term goal is to provide life-sustaining resources - nutrition, warmth in winter and rental assistance - long-term goals include introducing people to the network of Hands On Hartford's programs and community resources and, ultimately, a future marked by self-sufficiency. An ever increasing constituency of volunteers from member congregations and the community at large is key to accomplishing our basic needs ministry.

During a one-year period, MANNA expects to serve some 6,000 people through our food pantry, fuel bank and emergency financial assistance program. It will provide basic nutritional sustenance for individuals at the walk-in soup kitchen. And, hundreds of seniors will benefit from weekend congregate meals at a church-based senior center and two elderly housing complexes. All of these individuals will benefit from MANNA's ability to provide advocacy and community resource referral.

Annual MANNA Food Facts

• 12,000 meals: breakfasts, lunches and take-home dinners (in cold packs) are provided to hundreds of seniors who frequent MANNA's three community meal sites: Center Church on Gold Street; Betty Knox Housing Complex in the Asylum Hill neighborhood; and Smith Towers in Sheldon/Charter Oak.
• 10,000 meals are delivered by a team of staff and volunteers to the homes of home-bound elderly men and women who are too frail to travel to the cafes for their meals.
• 38,000 meals are served to 3000 (unduplicated) homeless and low-income adults at the soup kitchen at Christ Church Cathedral on Church Street. Breakfast and lunch are offered on weekdays, and dinner is served on Monday and Tuesday nights.
• Groceries are provided to 1,650 households through the food pantry at One Buckingham Street. Those who benefit include 2,050 adults and 1,400 children. The majority of families using the food pantry are single mothers with more than one child.
• 1,400 meals are served to an average crowd of 200 homeless and/or low-income people at holiday meals served at lunchtime on seven (7) major holidays: New Years Day, Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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