Keeping up with inflation, growing need a challenge for local soup kitchen

“If you’re a Christian, Jesus always talks about doing the menial tasks. Going the extra mile. Turning the other cheek,” Crandall said.

It’s hard to overstate the good his fellow board members have done for those in need, Crandall said. They hail from churches and civic groups from around the Golden Isles. Members of local congregations organize most of the volunteer groups that prepare and serve food at Manna House.

Crandall, pastor at Jekyll Island Baptist Church, has been involved in charitable initiatives for most of his life, since college.

“I have a hard time turning somebody away. If I can help, I’m going to try,” Crandall said.

Around January 1983, Manna House was founded by a collection of like-minded people, he explained. Then-Brunswick Mayor Reggie Holtzendorf called together a committee of church ministers, business leaders and civic groups to come up with a way to address hunger in the city. They proposed a soup kitchen.

A team looked at soup kitchens in other cities, eventually going to Savannah for the training to run one. City employees refurbished a home owned by the Salvation Army at 1621 Union St. for the newly created Manna House. The Salvation Army leased it for $1 a year, Crandall said, and the soup kitchen officially started serving food in September 1983.

That building was demolished and Manna House moved to its present home at the corner of G Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in 2004.

It took time to recruit a large enough pool of volunteers to staff the kitchen and serve food Monday to Friday, but it’s not much of an issue now. Crandall said the charity could use some more teams, but the big problem now is money.

At first, they averaged around 50-75 people a day, Crandall said, on a budget of $35,000 a year. Since 1983, the number of people coming for food has climbed to around 280-310, while the annual costs came in at around $100,000 last year.

“We fell in the hole last year around $24,000,” Crandall said. “We had the money in the bank, but that money didn’t come in last year. That was the first year we really had a problem with funding.”

Serving more meals while accounting for the cost of inflation has been a challenge, he said. Most of the people coming through the line are the poor and homeless, and not much has changed there since Manna House opened. But more and more, he said children — upwards of 70 on some days — and seniors on fixed incomes show up for meals.

Another change that’s occurred is among the volunteers, who are more proficient now at helping people get connected with other organizations that provide assistance for struggling families and those with mental health issues. Manna House and its volunteers try to help, Crandall said. There’s a lot of support in Glynn County for just about every need, the task is finding the right person to talk to.

He and other board members have spoken with other churches in the area about their plight, he said, and 2023 started off strong. He does worry about how it will end, though.

He asks the public for monetary support. Donations of food are always welcome, but feeding 300-plus people in a day is more than most people can manage financially. Because of relationships with local businesses that make for economical bulk purchasing, Crandall said meals cost Manna House around $2.52 per person.

To contribute, mail a check made out to Manna House, c/o Jim Crandall, to 138 Cypress Run Drive, Brunswick, GA 31520. For information about volunteering, stop by Manna House, 1408 G St., from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. any day of the week.