On April 17th, 2021, employees of Central Credit Union of Florida volunteered their time to support Manna Food Pantries – Pensacola. For three hours, staff members of the credit union worked in the warehouse cleaning and assisting with preparing groceries to be provided directly to those in need in the local community. Central Credit Union of Florida also donated candy bars to local law enforcement officers working with the School Resource Officer Food program. These candy bars will be included in food kits given to children to take home with the goal being to provide food for a hungry child while also developing trust with the student.
As a volunteer-based organization, Manna Food Pantries relies on public participation to quality and date-check, sort and distribute the food received as donations, but when the pandemic started last year, the local Manna warehouse had to reduce their volunteer positions and work with a limited crew. As Barbara MacNeil, Central Credit Union of Florida Community Liaison, stated, “We have partnered with Manna for several years and volunteer every quarter, so we were on standby for when Manna was able to reopen the warehouse to volunteers again. We knew that the demand for supplying food to those in need had increased because of the pandemic and especially after Hurricane Sally and we were ready to help.”
Manna Food Pantries also commemorated the event on Volunteer Recognition Day, a national holiday celebrated on April 20th of this year via their social media page. The post shared that the contribution from their volunteers is equivalent to providing more than 2,000 people with food for an entire day or 6,264 nutritious meals in total.
To learn more about how you can support the local Manna Food Pantries, you can visit www.mannahelps.org. To learn more about Central Credit Union of Florida, you can follow their Facebook page, visit their website www.ccufl.org or call their local headquarters at (850) 474-0970 or (800) 375-2235.
