Programs/Activities

See Food Stamp Guidelines Here

Food Stamp Outreach
The Food Stamp program is a Federal initiative to help low-income people and families to meet their food and nutrition needs. Eligible people include families leaving welfare, seniors, persons with disabilities, the homeless, immigrants and "the working poor." Studies show that since welfare laws changed in 1996, fewer eligible people receive food stamps. Many people do not realize that they are still eligible for food stamps after they leave welfare.

MANNA's Food Stamp Outreach program helps thousands of families each year apply for and receive food stamps. We have a strong, community-based model of outreach in Middle Tennessee, which consists of

• Distributing food stamp information at key sites in the community:
  food banks, health clinics, shelters, feeding programs, grocery stores,
  health fairs, and community centers,
• Giving food stamp presentations to groups of eligible people,
• Helping people get through barriers to participation in the food stamp program; we inform eligible people about their rights to food stamps, and we inform social service providers about food stamp basics including recipients' rights

  Welfare Organizing/Alternative Connections
  MANNA recognizes that a responsive welfare system can help a hungry family meet its needs. Our Community Educator gives welfare recipients information on their rights and on benefits. These benefits are designed to help recipients transition from welfare to work and allow recipients to feed their families.
  Our Community Educator also organizes Alternative Connections (AC) a group of past and current welfare recipients who want to have a voice in Tennessee's welfare plan. AC works with the director of the local Department of Human Services (DHS) office, toward more amenable procedures for participants. On the state level Alternative Connections collaborates with other groups to advocate for such needs as increased child care reimbursements, increased monthly payments to disabled and elderly welfare recipients, and a more responsive child-support system.

  Individual and Policy Advocacy
  MANNA believes that outreach without advocacy is incomplete. On average, we assist 20 people each month to resolve these types of problems with their benefits. This kind of advocacy helps clients, and allows us to identify where advocacy is needed to improve state and local food and welfare policy. We use information gained through our outreach activities to advocate for the removal of barriers at the policy level. We focus on populations of people who desperately need responsive policies. MANNA wants all hungry people to have an opportunity to access benefits which will give them the sustenance they need.

  Child Care Food Program
  MANNA is the non-profit sponsor for one of the region's largest Child Care Food Programs (CCFP), the Federal Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Through CCFP, MANNA sponsors one million nutritious meals to children in family and group day care homes across Middle Tennessee every year.
  
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