CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After one year with Manna Meal’s food truck, the Charleston-based soup kitchen’s Chief Executive Officer Amy Wolfe says they’ve been able to reach more people than ever before in tackling food insecurity.
Wolfe told WCHS Radio they had initially planned to do a slow rollout of the food truck with just three days a week, but now they take it out all 7 days a week because they saw how great the need for it was.
She said the need to add more days of operation also came out of something specific that happened on Charleston’s West Side back in November.
“We actually started doing two days a week when Charleston had the gas and water crisis over on the West Side several months ago, and so we have just kind of kept that pace going up, and its really been fulfilling to know that we’re helping to address food insecurity in our area,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe said they mainly operate the food truck on the West Side as it’s an area where the need has always been greater. She said they currently serve anywhere between 250 and 350 meals there at lunchtime alone.
Wolfe said the food truck has addressed a longtime obstacle for people with getting to Manna Meal, because it has created the opportunity to go to them.
“We don’t believe there should be any barriers to food security, and I think just meeting people where they are has made a huge impact,” she said.
Beyond the West Side however, Wolfe said they often get involved with community partnerships with the food truck and have taken it to St. Albans, Marmet, the Kanawha City area among various other locations.
She said they now plan to continue to take it out to more places and create more partnerships through the food truck’s mission.
Wolfe said Manna Meal wouldn’t be able to achieve that mission of feeding the community without the staff who make up the organization.
“They have just adjusted and pivoted whenever needed to make sure our mission was being met,” said Wolfe. “You know, in social service sometimes you hit some road blocks and we certainly have, but at the end of the day we always make sure that the mission is first and foremost in making sure that we’re helping our community.”
Since moving Manna Meal’s indoor dining location from St. John’s Episcopal Church on Quarrier Street to the former Garnet Career Center on Dickenson in December, Wolfe said they are now also in search of a true, permanent location where they can do everything in one spot.
She said they still do the cooking out of St. John’s and transport the food over to the career center.
“It’s a lot of work, but the location, we certainly are seeing the same amount of people that we did over at St. John’s, so we’re very happy about that,” Wolfe said.
Manna Meal has been serving the Charleston community since 1976.