By Hoag Levins & Jin David Kim ... | ...Jan. 00, 2011

PHILADELPHIA -- While most of the region's nonprofits routinely scramble to recruit volunteers, few

Photo: Hoag Levins

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Rob Saxon has to keep MANNA's meal production operations staffed with 75 volunteers a day. Click photos for larger image.

face as daunting a task as Robert Saxon. As Director of Volunteer and Resource Development at Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutritional Alliance (MANNA), he must find 1,500 volunteers a month to staff the food charity's factory-like operation.

"That's a big number and it can be quite a challenge," said Saxon, a paid staffer who has been with the organization for seven years. "We need to fill the kitchen with enough workers to prepare and pack thousands of meals a day. If we're not preparing food for our clients, we're dead in the water."

Life-threatening illness
And so could some of the clients be -- all of whom are victims of life-threatening illnesses severe enough to render them too weak to acquire and cook their own daily food.

Organized in the early 1990s as a charity to feed HIV/AIDS victims, MANNA evolved into the broader nonprofit nutritional service it is today. It works closely with the area hospitals, clinics, doctors and nurses who send it most of its clients.

MANNA is located in an industrial facility just off Market and 23rd Streets in center city. In 2010 its staffers and volunteers created and

Photo: Hoag Levins

Working the meal assembly line are Serine Budd, Thomas Chambers, Roosevelt Adams, Barbara Malone and Lynn Jamison. Each MANNA client receives a single delivery of 21 frozen meals each week.

delivered more than 950,000 meals for more than 1,000 people living in nine Pennsylvania and New Jersey counties. That set a new annual record for the number of meals produced and people served.

Which means Saxon's daily life got more frantic. Each day Monday through Friday he must ensure there are 75 people available to work three-hour shifts throughout cooking and packing operations that begin at 6 a.m. and run until 8 p.m.

Region-wide outreach programs
One of the ways he does that is with promotions on websites and blogs all across the Delaware Valley. Meanwhile, MANNA's own extensive mannapa.org website is one of its most effective recruitment tools. And throughout the year, Saxon also travels the region to shake hands, address groups and visit corporate executive suites in search of more people willing to donate their time and energy to nourish the seriously sick.

On good mornings, he arrives at his office desk to find backlogs of voice- and e-mails from volunteers eager to come in. Bad mornings can be plagued by all manner of unexpected events from disruptive weather to flu epidemics that leave MANNA short handed and its kitchen crippled. That's

Photo: Hoag Levins

MANNA's fleet of six refrigerated trucks delivers meals to seriously ill people in nine counties.

when Saxon pulls out the stops, grinding through his database of more than 3,000 active volunteers and cranking the phone to partner corporations in hopes of shaking loose some volunteers RIGHT NOW.

"More and more corporations don't always have money to give but they do have time and they realize how their employees can make a difference for nonprofits," said Saxon. "They like the team-building aspect of what we do."

MANNA is heavily supported by local corporations such as PECO Energy, Independence Blue Cross and Smith Barney which encourage their office workers to volunteer in groups.

'All walks of life here'
Stelle Sheller, MANNA veteran and retired teacher from Chestnut Hill, marvels at the diversity of her fellow volunteers, which, beyond those corporate staffers, include faith groups, young people from schools and colleges and others who are compelled to meet their community service requirements. "You really do meet people from all walks of life here," she said.

"There are a million opportunities in this city to volunteer your time," said Sheller, who has been coming to MANNA for seven years, "but when you're in the kitchen making meals, knowing that clients really need this and they're going to eat it that week, there's an instant gratification."

Working the same shift as Sheller is Jay Weiss, a four-year MANNA volunteer from Melrose Park. "You get back more than you give," Jay says at first, and then decides, "No, you get back as much as you give."

Wife's terminal illness
He retired six years ago from his own successful carpet business when his wife was stricken with a terminal illness, and he knew he just wanted to spend time with her.

MANNA, he says, connects him to her memory. "My wife's energy flows through the work I do. It still exists. I feel connected."

Because of his late wife, Weiss intimately understands the importance of MANNA's mission and how meaningful the meal deliveries are to sick people who don't have any other way to get nourishing, healthy food. But his wife was never a client.

"I'm a great cook," he says with a smile.