Food for a Food Desert


DERWOOD, Md. , May 15, 2023 - When Erin Koch moved to Las Vegas four years ago, she brought the experience of building a food rescue network with Celestial Manna. Celestial Manna collects excess food from grocers and restaurants and gives to those in need. Starting with one donation weekly, Erin expanded to four grocery stores and several restaurants. For eight years she helped Celestial Manna form connections with several food donation partners, allowing the organization to help ever more people in need.

When her military family moved to Las Vegas, Erin transplanted her food rescue expertise and began serving neighbors at Nellis Air Force base. Erin also learned about the town of Indian Springs, the home of Creech Air Force Base. Indian Springs is over 30 miles from Las Vegas in the middle of the actual desert. The closest thing to a grocery store is the local Dollar General. Erin, alongside her rescue partner of four years Heather White, used her experience building Celestial Manna networks to form a partnership with Three Square, the largest food bank in Nevada. Indian Springs Masonic Lodge 48 allowed her to open a physical food pantry to collect and distribute nutritious food to those in need in the city where residents have minimal access to fresh, healthy food and are often low-income families and homebound.

Making an impact

Erin and her team distribute over 35,000 pounds of food every month to Indian Springs, Nellis Air Force Base and the local homeless community. In addition to what Erin rescues from grocery stores and restaurants, Three Square Food Pantry also now delivers food weekly to her distribution site in Indian Springs.

In the Las Vegas area, Celestial Manna serves over 250 families a month. None of this would've been possible without the dedication and service to our community of the wonderful volunteers Erin Koch, Heather White, Carolann Di Stasio, and Brenda Lufholm. This wonderful team of volunteers supports underserved populations with delicious and nutritious rescue food. We look forward to what the future may hold.

About Celestial Manna

Celestial Manna, a faith-based 501(c)(3) food recovery nonprofit, based in Derwood, Maryland, with food recovery operations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region as well as several other localities across the United States. In 2020, Celestial Manna recovered 6.1 million pounds of excess nutritious food, feeding over 20 thousand people monthly.

Contact: info@celestialmanna.org
Phone: +1 301 915 7538

SOURCE Celestial Manna