Community Food Rescue Transitions

Founding CFR Director Cheryl Kollin has retired after leading Community Food Rescue for nine years. In response to the Montgomery County Council’s desire to create a countywide food recovery program, Cheryl, CEO of Full Plate Ventures LLC, and Manna Food Center joined forces in 2014 to create Community Food Rescue. Thanks to county and private funding throughout the years, CFR has grown into a robust program of Manna Food Center. Cheryl helped create and launch the program and has been at the helm since its inception.

Cheryl first brought her business and sustainable food systems expertise to Manna as a consultant. “When Jackie DeCarlo, Manna CEO, and I first envisioned what a food recovery program could look like, we had no idea where this program would go,” said Cheryl. “Over the years, it’s been a joy to craft the program and guide its evolution to meet the changing needs of our community. Each time we expanded the program, we modified our operations, enlisted generous partners, and served the community in a new way.” Jackie reflects, “Cheryl has been an incredible thought partner and implementer.  For almost a decade, our team always knew we could rely on Cheryl’s food system expertise, as well as her commitment to the CFR vision, when conceiving of and rolling out innovations.”

When the federal government shut down in January 2019, restaurants donated meals to furloughed federal workers, and CFR volunteer food runners delivered them to community gatherings.

Cheryl oversaw CFR Cooks! enlisting help from professional chefs and volunteers from KindWorks to transform rescued food ingredients into delicious meals for CFR network shelters.

In spring 2019, CFR expanded to provide cooked meals. Dubbed, CFR Cooks!, we used fresh produce that was better cooked rather than eaten raw. We partnered with professional chefs from Marriott International and KindWorks volunteers, and transformed less than perfect produce, as well as food bank staples, into delicious, healthy, restaurant quality meals that were donated to the Montgomery Coalition for the Homeless shelters.

At the beginning of the global pandemic in March 2020, CFR received numerous calls from restaurants that had to shut their doors immediately. Within a day, CFR picked up their inventory of food and distributed it among our network of food assistance providers. At the same time, Manna initiated home deliveries for high-risk participants who should not be going out. CFR volunteers, wearing masks and gloves, made deliveries to 3,500 residences in those critical first months.

Cheryl (right) celebrates Manna’s 40 Anniversary with colleague Annarose Kennedy, Local Food Resources Specialist.

In the last three years, Cheryl has helped with the expansion of the County Farm to Food Bank program, which purchases freshly prepared produce, meat and eggs and donates  these products through the CFR network. Most recently, she has worked with the ChowMatch developer on a new app feature that allows CFR  food assistance providers to choose among bulk food donation offers. “With this new feature, we can distribute smaller quantities of bulk foods, such as sacks of potatoes, to providers that have limited storage capacity,” Cheryl explained. “Overall, this spreads distribution to many more CFR network members.”

Manna welcomes Tricia Thomas, Food Resources Coordinator who will oversee the day to day operations of Community Food Rescue.

CFR will continue to grow and thrive in the capable hands of Food Resources Coordinator Tricia Thomas, who assumes the day-to-day operation of CFR. Seasoned Manna team member, Annarose Kennedy, has been promoted to Local Food Resources Specialist and oversees Manna’s Farm to Food Bank program. Please contact Tricia at tricia@mannafood.org for CFR related information and Annarose at annarose@mannafood.org, for Farm to Food Bank related information.