Manna House celebrates 35 years of service
and community support in Sussex County.
Manna House, a community soup kitchen, opened on November 15, 1987 in the First Presbyterian Church in Newton. Since that time Manna House has served several hundred thousand meals to those in need of food and fellowship. We celebrate the efforts of our community members who know the important part that the security and warmth of a meal each day plays in the lives of their neighbors. The variety of volunteer giving is endless. People donate their time, to drive, carry, and transport donated food to the kitchen each week on a regular schedule.
Recycling disappears weekly, removed by a volunteer. Volunteers setup and take down chairs and tables each day, and food is prepared and served. A Manna House Board, representing each participating congregation meets to plan and assess the program each month.
Manna House does not receive any local, county, state, or federal funding. The entire program has been supported by the spontaneous giving and efforts of the community. This support has come from numerous participating and supporting congregations, institutions, businesses, local service, School, Scout, and Youth groups, individuals who donate financial support, food and paper goods, and from its church home, given so generously.
When we celebrate this program’s 35 years we will be not only be celebrating the quality and success of the program, but the strength and the commitment of the community of people who have provided so abundantly in so many different and important ways. All of these parts and pieces have supported Manna House for the past 35 years, and without just one of the pieces this system of feeding the hungry in Sussex County would not be working.
This is an ongoing program which has ongoing needs, needs that don’t go away. We cannot write down exactly how we will pay our operating expenses, except to say that they continue to be paid one day at a time in any of a variety of ways by people who have provided for this program and who have made a significant difference in the lives of the hungry in our community. Thank you for joining so willingly with others in a network of services that brings food and a special kind of peace and hope to those in need who live among us.
Linda M. Zwart
President Manna House Board of Directors