nonprofit fe ature
MANNA FoodBank has been providing food with hope and dignity to people in Western North Carolina since 1983 and now distributes the equivalent of over 40,000 meals per day while linking the food industry with over 200 partner agencies in 16 counties. (The MANNA acronym stands for Mountain Area Nutritional Needs Alliance.) “But beyond that, MANNA FoodBank is the leader in the work of ending hunger right here in our community,” she explains. “We are the reason that everyone can have a cake on their birthday, that seniors have access to fresh produce to keep them healthy, and that single moms can let their kids have a friend come over because they have enough food to have a
“The people of Western North Carolina are the most beautiful and resilient souls that I have ever known.”
Hannah Randall Chief Executive Officer, MANNA FoodBank
H
ANNAH R ANDALL WANTS HER LIFE TO HAVE given the world more love than it had before. She wants to show her two children that meaningful work brings a meaningful life, and that their mama did something that filled her heart. This is why she chooses to work for a nonprofit. Randall’s story begins in Asheville, as her parents met when they were students at UNC-Asheville. “Western North Carolina has always been the place where my heart is,” she says. She participated early in her life in poverty alleviation work in several pockets of the area through an organization called Carolina Cross Connection (CCC) as a volunteer and later a staff member. “Through CCC,” recalls Randall, “I had the opportunity to be in the homes of people in need throughout this region, and when you get the chance to really get to know people and their struggles and resiliency, it never leaves you. In my view, food should be a basic right for anyone no matter their circumstances.” 74
| November 2018
real dinner. This place really is magic, and I couldn’t be more grateful to work here.” Randall graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. She then earned a master’s in business administration from Elon University. While at NC State, she interned with Carolina Power & Light (Progress Energy) and was hired as an engineer upon graduation. She held various operations, project management, and leadership positions including being the plant manager for a fleet of combustion turbine gas plants. She has worked and volunteered in various capacities with several nonprofit organizations all over North Carolina. “Hunger is a pervasive and sometimes invisible injustice that affects thousands upon thousands of our neighbors, and I can’t live with that so I’m working to do something about it. But it is difficult sometimes for people to know how widespread this issue is, especially when there are help wanted signs up in several places. The reality of the complex factors that cause hunger and food insecurity is that the math just doesn’t add up for many people who work but have to pay for rent, transportation, and all of the other bills that pile on. The truth is that most of us are just one or two situations away from needing a little help, and many of the people that we serve were fine until their car broke down or the breadwinner of the family got laid off or someone got cancer. For people living on the edge, any one of these things can drown them if MANNA and our partners aren’t there to catch them so they can breathe.” Randall doesn’t find herself with a lot of down time between MANNA, two kids, two dogs, two cats, and 11 chickens. She