Monday morning, MANA Nutrition CEO Mark Moore gave Sen. Raphael Warnock a tour of the global non-profit’s facilities in Pooler, showing him boxes upon boxes of the company’s meal replacements, still waiting to be shipped out to the sub-Saharan African countries of South Sudan, Chad, and Nigeria, among others, since March.
Monday was Warnock’s first time ever visiting the facility, after helping the nonprofit organization secure funding following the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID contracts.
“It’s been great just to have to have the support and positive attention of [Warnock’s] staff,” Moore said. “Having him advocate for us on the Hill is huge, so have him to come see it in person is amazing and a big honor.”
MANA produces ready-to-use therapeutic food, a peanut-butter based meal replacement product with protein, vitamins and milk powder to supplement childhood nutrition across the globe. The product requires no cooking, water, refrigeration and can improve a child’s health in a matter of weeks, according to MANA.
In March, 35% of MANA’s ready-to-box-and-ship orders, totaling $12 million, dried up overnight when the Trump administration eliminated funding and dismantled aid to foreign countries.
Although the contracts were eventually reinstated a week later, MANA was still waiting on $18.6 million in federal funds owed from completed and delivered contracts since October. Warnock worked with his staff to get the funding restored, securing $12.8 million of the total amount MANA was owed in early April.
“I was happy to support their efforts in April by directly appealing to Secretary [Marco] Rubio,” Warnock said. “I was able to talk with him directly on the phone about that, and we were able to get that money released, but it’s important that we continue to support this work.”
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Thousands of boxes packed with MANA’s hunger relief pouches, made at the Fitzgerald facility, sit wrapped and ready to be sent wherever there’s a need.
MANA makes its peanut-butter based product in a facility in Fitzgerald, Ga., but is expanding to make and house the RUTFs at its 320,000-square-foot warehouse in Pooler by next year. Moore said in a press release last July that the nonprofit wanted to also dedicate 30% of the facility to produce items it does not presently make in Fitzgerald.
MANA purchases 2 million pounds of peanuts monthly from Georgia peanut farmers as well as sugar from Georgia growers, according to Moore. The Fitzgerald facility employs about 140 people, and the Pooler facility will most likely employ a similar number or more. MANA says in a report from 2024 that it has invested $66.2 million in Georgia communities.
“It’s shameful and shows a complete lack of moral imagination when this administration would literally have, in some cases, food sitting on docks, that was deteriorating, and costs money to incinerate it,” Warnock said. “Having food sitting on docks that’s already been delivered rather than feeding hungry people is both immoral and fiscally irresponsible.”
MANA and State Department officials confirmed that the company has been paid its outstanding balances from the contract work, but there are still millions of dollars of food sitting in the facility waiting to be shipped.
“As a Georgian and Savannahian, I’m proud of the work that MANA does on behalf of the hungry children around the world,” Warnock said. “As they are nourishing children around the world, they are nourishing the Georgia economy with jobs all across Georgia, and this work must continue.”
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News, covering the municipalities, and community and cultural programs. You can reach her at DAmbus@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: MANA hosts U.S. Sen. Warnock after work to reinstate USAID funds