The rise in inflation rates have affected many businesses over the last few months. Navigating shortages in food and labor have made it difficult for businesses to succeed.

Despite the challenges, the Manna Food Pantry has continued their success of serving the community in need.

“The donations, I will say, have been down this year understandably,” Executive Director Bonnie Clark
said. “But we have still been blessed.”

Clark says the prices of food have created a much higher need for the community. While some items
have been harder to find, she hasn’t had to make major changes around inflation for the pantry.

“If I was unable to get something, I would keep looking at all my sources and check prices. We haven’t
had to stray too far from the normal items that we offer.”

Additionally, having a noticeable labor shortage could normally cause concern for staffing places like the pantry; but Clark says Manna’s staff support has made that potential issue non-existent.

“I have an awesome team of volunteers,” Clark said. “Most of them are regulars. They’ve been true to
their times and if they can’t be there, they’ll find a substitute.”

The goal of the pantry is to get food to those in the community that need it most. While the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic created a big need, there was a large amount of stimulus checks donated that are still helping the pantry in 2022.

Clark says the pantry is still looking for support. This includes monetary donations or food donations like cereal, pasta, soup, peanut butter, and more.

 

To learn more on donating and services, visit the Manna Pantry of Big Rapids website, mannapantry.org.