History of MANNA
MANNA opened its doors in 1990 when seven members of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia began delivering meals to their neighbors dying of AIDS. During this time, people diagnosed with AIDS found themselves incredibly ill, isolated, and in need of hope. MANNA’s founders fulfilled this need with nourishment—giving love and community to those who needed it most.
In the over 30 years since our founding, MANNA has stayed true to its original mission of providing nourishment to our critically ill neighbors. As our knowledge of utilizing food as medicine deepened, our program evolved to include medically-tailored meals created in our in-house kitchen and professional nutrition counseling. After recognizing the widespread need for our services, MANNA began serving anyone at nutritional risk due to critical illness in 2006. Since then, MANNA has served clients with over 85 different illnesses. Since 1990, our program has improved the health and quality of life of more than 40,000 of our Philadelphia area neighbors with more than 21,000,000 medically nourishing meals.