CEO Jackie DeCarlo’s Remarks before the Senate Spouse Organization
December 6, 2022
Washington, DC
Good morning, everyone, my name is Jackie DeCarlo, CEO of Manna Food Center based in Montgomery County, Maryland. I want to thank the Second Gentleman for the invitation to be with you today: I had the honor of being informed and inspired at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and there you spoke of the need to take action and be part of the solution to ending hunger by 2030. So, I’m not surprised that you and your team created an opportunity for service today; all of us at Manna Food Center are honored to be a part of it.
We are also especially pleased to see Katherine Wilkins here, she and Senator Van Hollen have been connected to Manna’s work for many years in different ways. We can count on the Senator’s office when we need help from constituent services to ribbon cuttings to policy work on important topics such as Child Nutrition Reauthorization.
Indeed, Manna Food Center is thankful to be among so many accomplished leaders, thinkers, and doers from across the country. We hope what you experience today will inform and inspire you. To start I’d like to set the context about food insecurity in the surrounding region of Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Last year 1.2 million people didn’t always know where their next meal was going to come from, or they often skipped meals, or they needed to turn to soup kitchens or local pantries for assistance.
Manna Food Center is located in Montgomery County, which is right over the DC line, and was founded by the community 40 years ago because leaders decided there needed to be an organization focused on eliminating hunger. Just as the bi-partisan White House strategy reflects, our priorities focus on:
- making healthy, tasty food easy to access,
- educating people of all ages so they can make informed, healthy choices,
- addressing the root causes of why people are hungry in the first place.
If you walked into a MC Public School cafeteria and you saw kids sitting around tables like these where you are having breakfast, two out of every 5 of them would need the free and reduced meals provided by the National Lunch Program. One of those kids is a 12-year-old boy and his mom, Odessa, is a volunteer on Manna’s Advocacy Task Force. She’s a single mom who recently earned her associates degree, works as a para-educator, and has started her own catering company, in case Mr. Emhoff’s team needs a referral for next year’s breakfast….
At a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Manna Odessa shared some reflections she told me I could pass on:
Even watching every single penny, there never seems to be enough to go around. My job with the school system only pays when school is in session, meaning there is no income during the summer months, over winter and spring breaks, or on other days when schools are closed. There were so many months when I had to make tough choices. How was I going to buy enough food and pay the light bill? Put gas in the car or get groceries? These challenges and difficult decisions don’t just affect me, I have my son to think about. I want to build a strong, healthy, and successful life for him. I want him to get the food he needs, every single day, so he can focus and learn, so he can stay healthy and happy.
I’ve met Odessa’s son, and I can report he usually is happy. We at Manna work to help make sure that kids like him get food every single day. And today you all are going to help us do that.
Manna has a program in 48 public schools where thousands of students receive “Smart Sacks” to take home to their families. They are filled with nutritious ingredients, as well as educational materials, to make sure the whole family can have satisfying meals over the weekend.
Mr. Emhoff, I know you are a big proponent of private-public partnerships, and today you all are going to participate in our Smart Sacks program which brings together the schools with community groups like places of worship, law firms, IT companies to make sure that every Friday kids can carry home a bag of healthy, appealing ingredients to feed their families over the weekend, and they can return to school ready to learn.
My colleague, Mardia Dennis, is going to tell you all how the project is going to work so that we’ll have 300 Smart Sacks to share with Bel Pre Elementary in Silver Spring. 70% of the kids in that school are eligible to receive free and reduced meals, meaning their families are struggling like Odessa to make ends meet.
Before I turn it over to Mardia, I want to be sure and acknowledge that these items were delivered yesterday by members of our logistics team, Steve Corrozi, Juan Villalobos, and Doogie Whittaker. Today you are going to be assisted by Brizali Iquiapaza, Yelba Mojica, and Priya Narang.
On behalf of all of us, we hope that you will go home and tell your spouses, your kids, your colleagues, and your friends about the importance of a whole of government—indeed a whole of society effort—to solve hunger. I guarantee you in every state in this great union there are groups like Manna Food Center who would appreciate hearing from you and who will work to get this problem solved together.
Mardia, please help this group get to work fighting hunger.
