ICYMI: Warnock Visits MANA Nutrition to Uplift Organization’s Work to Nourish Hungry Children, Georgia’s Economy

Senator Reverend Warnock visited MANA Nutrition’s Pooler facility to meet with the organization’s leadership and discuss the importance of protecting federal investments fueling Georgia jobs, humanitarian aid

The Senator spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to get this funding restored, and their reimbursements were eventually received

MANA employs over 100 Georgians and fuels Georgia’s peanut industry, purchasing 2 million pounds of Georgia peanuts a month to manufacture lifesaving aid for hungry children

Senator Warnock: “As a Georgian and Savannahian, I’m proud of the work that MANA does on behalf of the hungry children around the world. As they are nourishing children around the world, they are nourishing the Georgia economy with jobs all across Georgia, and this work must continue”

Senator Warnock and MANA CEO Mark Moore hold a box of RUTF product made with Georgia peanuts

Photo credit: Justin Taylor of The Current

Pooler, GA – U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) emphasized his commitment to supporting MANA Nutrition’s work in nourishing hungry children around the globe and Georgia’s economy during a recent visit to their Pooler facility. MANA Nutrition is a Georgia-based non-profit and a leader in combating acute malnutrition in children. They produce Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a fortified peanut paste that can save the lives of malnourished children. RUTF is easy to use, requiring no cooking, water, or refrigeration, and it can dramatically improve a child’s health in a matter of weeks. MANA employs 125 Georgians between its Fitzgerald and Pooler operations. MANA purchases approximately 2 million pounds of peanuts per month, helping fuel Georgia’s agriculture economy and sustain peanut farmers. A 2024 report shows MANA has invested $66.2 million in Georgia communities.

MANA Nutrition was notified earlier this year that its contracts and funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were canceled by the federal government. Those contracts were officially restored on March 5, but they were still waiting on $18.6M in federal funds they are owed from completed and delivered contracts. The Senator and his team worked aggressively on a staff level to get this funding restored, and the Senator even spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to get this funding restored, and their reimbursements were eventually received.

See more stories about Senator Warnock’s visit to MANA’s Pooler facility below:

The Current: Warnock praises producer of emergency food for malnourished children abroad

U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock on Monday cautioned against a policy on foreign aid that confuses “America First” with “America Only” as he praised the work of a Georgia-based nonprofit group that manufactures vitamin-fortified, peanut-based packets of food to treat acute malnutrition among children abroad.

At a sprawling, 315,000-square-foot production and storage facility in Pooler operated by Mana Nutrition, Warnock said the group’s purchase of 2 million pounds of peanuts a month from Georgia farmers and employment of 100 Georgians showed that “even as they are nourishing hungry children all over the world, they are nourishing the Georgia economy.”

In remarks to reporters, Warnock, who was born and raised in Savannah, criticized the view, widely held among “America First” supporters of President Trump and opponents of U.S. foreign aid, that the people of the U.S. must choose between taking care of their own or saving those in foreign lands.

“Very often people have this false dichotomy where they’re saying, either we’re supporting America or we’re supporting those people ‘over there,’” he said. “Mana is a great example of ways in which, when we invest in this, we are investing in” Georgia.

In April, as Elon Musk and the Trump administration took a chainsaw to U.S. foreign aid and the agency that oversees it, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Warnock said he phoned U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to urge the administration to pay its outstanding debt of $18.6 million to Mana for so-called ready-to-use therapeutic food that the government had already purchased and had been produced.

He and Mana officials said Monday the bill had been paid. According to Warnock and Mark Moore, Mana’s co-founder and CEO, the secretary of state has indicated a willingness on the part of the administration to fund production of the organization’s lifesaving peanut paste at its Pooler plant as well as one in Fitzgerald, in south-central Ben Hill County.

Savannah Morning News: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock visits Pooler nonprofit after USAID funds pulled, then reinstated

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 to have him 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

WSAV: Sen. Raphael Warnock visits Pooler nonprofit warehouse

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock spent Monday morning touring MANA Nutrition, a Georgia non-profit organization fighting child malnutrition worldwide.

Warnock applauded the work of MANA nutrition as he toured their warehouse. The company employs over 120 Georgians between their Fitzgerald and Pooler operations.

“I think it’s important to stress this because very often people have this false dichotomy where they’re saying either, we’re supporting America or we’re supporting those people over there somewhere else,” Warnock said. “No, MANA is a great example of the ways in which when we invest in this, we are investing in the Georgia economy.”

Following the Pooler visit, Warnock toured Irwin County’s Evans Memorial Hospital, meeting with staff to discuss the risks to rural health care access following steep cuts to Medicaid in the recent GOP tax law.

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