Manna - Durango Soup Kitchen

Background Statement

Manna Soup Kitchen was founded in May, 1985. The previous winter, a woman died from starvation in a horse stall at the La Plata County Fairgrounds in Durango, Colorado. Scrawled on the wall beside her were the words, "nobody cares." This tragedy resulted in a small group of Christians organizing to provide food for those in the community who were experiencing hunger.

Currently, Manna serves nearly 80,000 meals per year. While the mission of Manna is still to feed those in need, the organization has expanded its services to include skills training programs to prepare people for jobs in the food industry and gain greater self-sufficiency. By doing this, Manna is contributing to the overall health and economic vitality of the region.

In 2020, Manna created a strategic plan to shift the focus of our work for years to come. After 35 years of operating as a traditional soup kitchen, we opened the Community Kitchen, Take-out Window, Food Market and Resource Center on March 28th, 2022. We are thrilled that our new model is fully operational, fulfilling basic needs, resource connection, skill building, and centering participant choice.

Manna's Resource Center features a participant-choice food market for people to shop at no cost. In order to access the food market, participants have an initial meeting with a Resource Center Navigator who assesses each person’s service needs and provides navigation for support. We are able to provide SNAP application assistance, basic needs provisions, obtaining or renewing identification, housing navigation, access to technology and internet, employment readiness programs, and extensive community resource navigation. We also have an onsite partner office to provide quick and easy connections to other local resources that specialize in Medicaid enrollment; connection to mental and physical health services; connection to WIC and early childhood programs; support for Spanish-speaking or immigrant communities; support for people with disabilities; peer support and harm reduction; and access to COVID-19 testing and vaccines.

Ultimately, Manna's Resource Center is addressing a spectrum of needs under one roof and providing equitable tools for families and individuals seeking support. We center our work around being an inclusive, trauma-informed space, providing low barrier access to resources. There are no income qualifications or identification needed to access services. Manna requests all program participants fill out a needs assessment and demographic information so we can better understand community needs and service provisions. Our goal is to decrease stigma and uphold dignity for those seeking Manna’s assistance. We offer a variety of operating hours, including evenings and weekends, to allow people with varying schedules to utilize our resources and our signage is available in English, Spanish and Navajo languages. By offering a participant-choice model, people are able to feed their households according to dietary and cultural needs, thus reducing stigma surrounding food security programs.

The goal of this new model is seeing the people who utilize Manna’s Resource Center achieve the stability they deserve. Our hope is that the equitable support we provide, as well as our compassion and trauma-informed care, will allow our community members to progress without resource assistance, while still knowing they have a community at Manna to support them if ever needed.

Since March 28, 2022, Manna has served 2,588 unduplicated participants in the Resource Center. In 2022, Manna's Community Kitchen served 84,984 meals and the free Food Market distributed 110,453 pounds distributed and had 5,378 visits.