Getting more for Manna

When you enter Manna Soup Kitchen’s chilly walk-in freezer, it’s hard not to immediately notice a rack of ribs resting on a shelf on the left.

Toward the back are pounds of ground meat carefully wrapped in wax paper, and in the center of the ice box are several loaves of glazed ham.

Remember, this is a soup kitchen, not a commercial restaurant.

“We make good food,” said Joseph Prekup, Manna’s training and resource center manager. “I want the food to be restaurant quality, not slop on a plate.”

To make good food and feed hundreds of people daily, the nonprofit relies on a regular group of key donors to provide quality ingredients. Though other generous residents may want to contribute leftovers, game or uncommon meats, the soup kitchen has strict regulations about the type of food it can accept.

Manna Soup Kitchen, 1100 Avenida del Sol, is a nonprofit that has been providing hot meals for the community’s less fortunate – or for whomever else may choose to come – since 1985.

Jeff Haggard is one of Manna’s frequent visitors. He described the food as tasting better than any Durango restaurant he has been to.

“It’s kind of like a piece of heaven for the homeless,” he said.

Manna, like restaurants, abides by a protocol called the hazard analysis and critical control points, a systematic preventive approach to food safety that restaurants also have to follow. The process allows culinary staff to track each stage the food goes through from production to consumption. The facility is inspected by the San Juan Basin Health Department.

For instance, a hunter who may be feeling generous cannot kill a deer or an elk then donate the meat to Manna, Prekup said. The hunter would have to take the live animal to a meat-processing facility to follow Food and Drug Administration rules for slaughter.

Forget donating homemade items, fish from the Animas River, or buffet leftovers from your catering event, because Manna will accept only food that is up to health code. Untouched banquet food that has been kept at the proper temperature can be accepted only if it was prepared in a commercial kitchen.

The charitable are better off donating fresh, uncooked and sealed items that can be purchased in grocery stores such as packaged meats, canned goods and fresh vegetables.

Area grocery stores such as Albertsons, City Market, Natural Grocers and PJ’s Gourmet Market are the biggest contributors to the soup kitchen, said kitchen manager Tom Bentley.

Walmart contributes clothing, laundry detergent and other nonedible items.

Many of the grocery stores will freeze meat that hasn’t sold and donate it, Prekup said.

Locally owned establishments such as Bread, Durango Joe’s Coffee, Homeslice Pizza and Jean-Pierre Bakery also are regular donors.

Joe Lloyd, owner of Durango Joe’s Coffee, donates coffee.

“We do it because there’s a need there, and they’re an awesome organization that helps so many people in our community,” he said.

Also, farmers who frequently sell their produce at the Durango Farmers Market will donate unsold fruit and vegetables to Manna during the spring and summer.

Though the facility relies on generous donors, it also is striving for sustainability by growing its own produce in a garden adjacent to the new administrative building.

Volunteers tend to Manna’s garden, which includes apple trees, berry bushes, vegetables and Italian bees that produce honey.

Bentley, who has several years of experience in the food industry, works closely with volunteers to produce the daily meals. On average, 45 people volunteer each week at Manna. A majority of them are members from local churches.

The meals prepared by volunteers, under Bentley’s supervision, never are served without being sampled.

“What makes a great cook? Taste your food,” he said to the volunteers of New Hope church on Friday.

He runs his staff of volunteers like he would run chefs at a restaurant.

“We could not do this without these (volunteers),” he said. “They’re the backbone of the community to make this successful.”

vguthrie@durangoherald.com

How to donate

Manna Soup Kitchen accepts donations from people, not just businesses. The preferred method of donating is to take the items to the facility’s back door between the hours of 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. to ensure someone is there to receive them. Do not leave items by the door because they can spoil or attract wildlife.