Manna House is a community-wide ministry supported by many churches and groups for the purpose of providing a hot lunch each day to those in need. Lunches are prepared and served at The First Presbyterian Church on High Street in Newton, NJ. The Deacons of Yellow Frame coordinate our support, and our church supplies volunteers on the first Tuesday of each month, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The soup kitchen opened on November 15, 1987 in the First Presbyterian Church in Newton. Since then, Manna House served over 275,000 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 volunteers. Volunteers setup and take down chairs and tables each day, and prepare and serve the daily meal. 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. Spontaneous efforts of the local community support the entire Manna House program. This support comes from numerous participating and supporting congregations, institutions, businesses, local service, Scout, and Youth groups, individuals who donate financial support, food and paper goods, and from its host church, given so generously. When we celebrate this program’s 25 years, we not only celebrate the quality and success of the program but also the strength and the commitment of the community of people who provided so abundantly and in many different and important ways. This variety of community support is integral to the Manna House program that sustains a successful system of feeding the hungry in Sussex County.
This is an ongoing program, which has ongoing needs. We cannot pinpoint how we pay the operating expenses, except to we pay them one day at a time in a variety of ways. Over the past 25 years, people provided for a program that made; and continues to make 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.
