Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank: 40 years of partnering with the community to feed our neighbors

Although much has changed at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank since it opened 40 years ago, its mission has never wavered. In his 21 years with the organization, President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Manning’s top priority has been to feed the hungry in Baton Rouge and its surrounding parishes.

“The continuous support from our generous donors and dedicated volunteers allows us to help so many in our community,” says Manning. “In 2024 alone, we were able to distribute 12.8 million meals and 16.6 million pounds of food thanks to the help of 14,900 volunteers who served 58,000 hours. This kind of impact absolutely takes a village.”

AT A GLANCE

Top executives: Vance Gibbs, Board Chair; Leslie Jennings Magee, Board Vice Chair; Mike Manning, President & Chief Executive Officer; Seth Hatsfelt, Chief Operations Officer; Mindy Smith, Chief Financial Officer; Brian W. Hightower, Chief Development Officer

Phone: 225.359.9940

Address: 10600 S. Choctaw Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70815

Website: brfoodbank.org

But even with that astounding generosity, Louisiana remains number one in the nation in both child and senior food insecurity. Manning points to economic conditions as well as the increasing number of seniors who are raising their grandchildren.

“Each year we see more people who have challenges putting food on the table,” says Manning. “One misnomer is that most of the people we help are unemployed, but a lot of people who work multiple jobs are in need of assistance.”

One way the Food Bank helps the community is by giving to more than 140 local pantries in their 11-parish service area, allowing the hungry to get food where they live.

“It’s important to us to work with our local food banks, because they’re more in touch with their specific communities and know details about who is in need,” says Manning. “We also offer mobile food pantries and modified one-day delivery pantries, which allow short-term coverage of areas that don’t have dedicated brick and mortar spaces.”

In addition to offering food products, the Food Bank provides educational resources.

“It’s great when we get a chance to educate our communities about how to make less expensive food healthier for their families,” says Manning, citing learning how to rinse canned vegetables before serving to reduce sodium intake, treating food as medicine, and making healthier choices with SNAP dollars. “We want to lower illness rates in Louisiana—helping individuals be well and assisting the entire state by reducing healthcare costs.”

According to Manning, partnering with area businesses is critical to helping the community. “There are so many ways that companies can work with us,” he says. “We’ve had organizations use our boardroom for part of the day to do training, then volunteer together in the afternoon. Hands-on volunteering is a unique and meaningful way for employees to make a difference in others’ lives, and allows teams to feel the collective impact they are having.”

Some businesses also choose to collect monetary or food donations for the Food Bank.

“Donations of time, money, and food are what keep us going,” says Manning, whose team works with companies to provide food guidelines, information and bins for non-perishable food drives. “If someone is going to bring us food, we are going to do everything we can to help make that happen.”

Over the years, the Food Bank has worked with numerous organizations in the Capital Area to ensure the community’s needs are met, including Arkel, ExxonMobil pipeline, BASF, and Shell. “We’ve seen companies with multiple sites or departments have competitions to see who can donate the most food,” says Manning. “It’s great to see people having fun while doing good for others.”