Nearly 11,000 Montgomery County families now turn to Manna Food Center each month for help putting food on the table, up from about 6,600 before a wave of federal job cuts, USDA program reductions and SNAP benefit changes hit the region in 2025 and 2026.

CEO Craig Rice, who took over the Gaithersburg-based nonprofit in February 2025, told Montgomery Magazine that the surge caught the organization at a vulnerable moment. The USDA cut its Farm to Food Bank and Farm to School programs, dealing a financial blow to the Capital Area Food Bank, which in turn reduced the amount of food flowing to Manna. Then stricter SNAP work requirements and reduced eligibility left many residents with smaller benefits.

The newly hungry aren't just terminated federal workers. Office cleaners, cafeteria staff and contractors who supported federal agencies also lost income when those agencies downsized.

"The majority of families we serve work. They are employed. In fact, a lot of them have two jobs," Rice said.

Montgomery County's minimum wage sits at $18 an hour. Rice said that's not enough to live comfortably in a county where median household income exceeds $130,000. The Montgomery County Food Council reported the county's food insecurity rate climbed from 27% in 2023 to roughly 35% in 2025, according to Bethesda Magazine. Rice estimates 34% of residents are food insecure, with 15–20% severely so, meaning they cannot afford three or more meals a week.

Bethesda resident Jennifer Helfand, who volunteers with DC Food Rescue on pickup routes in Bethesda, told Bethesda Magazine on Aug. 12 that the county's wealth makes the hunger gap harder to accept. She said the area's restaurants and cafés produce enough surplus food to help feed people in need.

Scale of the operation

In 2025, Manna distributed 3.14 million pounds of food, made 8,805 household deliveries and sent 108,300 weekly food bags home with students at 76 Montgomery County Public Schools. The organization also runs Community Food Rescue, a network of more than 400 donors, food providers and volunteers that has recovered nearly 14 million pounds of food since 2012, according to Montgomery County's Office of Food Systems Resilience.

The county awarded $750,000 in August 2026 to six partnerships, including Manna, to expand its "Food as Medicine" program, which distributed more than 122,000 pounds of locally grown produce in fiscal year 2025, MoCo Show reported.

Rice's path to Manna

Before leading the food bank, Rice served three terms on the Montgomery County Council, leaving office in 2022. He was the youngest African American to serve on the council and only the second to do so. He represented District 15 in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2007 to 2010.

His advocacy streak predates politics. As a salesperson at the Marriott in Bethesda, colleagues nicknamed him "Congressman Rice" because he lobbied management on company changes. A Montgomery Blair High School graduate and father of three, Rice said he does not believe food insecurity will ease soon, even with new federal legislators, because the structural economic pressures run too deep.

Individual donors and the county government stepped up to help offset the demand spike. Rice credited donors who felt they couldn't do anything else and wanted their money to speak for them.

How to help

Residents can volunteer or donate at mannafood.org.