{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warnock-visits-mana-nutrition-to-uplift-organizations-work-to-nourish-hungry-children-georgias-economy/", "ICYMI: Warnock Visits MANA Nutrition to Uplift Organization\u2019s Work to Nourish Hungry Children, Georgia\u2019s Economy", "2025-08-27", "2025", "2025-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "GA", "Raphael G. Warnock", "W000790", "www.warnock.senate.gov", "warnock", "https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senator Reverend Warnock visited MANA Nutrition\u2019s Pooler facility to meet with the organization\u2019s leadership and discuss the importance of protecting federal investments fueling Georgia jobs, humanitarian aid\n\nMANA 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\n\nThe Senator spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to get this funding restored, and their reimbursements were eventually received\n\nMANA employs over 100 Georgians and fuels Georgia\u2019s peanut industry, purchasing 2 million pounds of Georgia peanuts a month to manufacture lifesaving aid for hungry children\n\nSenator Warnock: \u201cAs a Georgian and Savannahian, I\u2019m 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\u201d\n\nSenator Warnock and MANA CEO Mark Moore hold a box of RUTF product made with Georgia peanuts\n\nPhoto credit: Justin Taylor of The Current\n\nPooler, GA \u2013 U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) emphasized his commitment to supporting MANA Nutrition\u2019s work in nourishing hungry children around the globe and Georgia\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s agriculture economy and sustain peanut farmers. A 2024 report shows MANA has invested $66.2 million in Georgia communities.\n\nMANA 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.\n\nSee more stories about Senator Warnock\u2019s visit to MANA\u2019s Pooler facility below:\n\nThe Current: Warnock praises producer of emergency food for malnourished children abroad\n\nU.S. Senator Raphael Warnock on Monday cautioned against a policy on foreign aid that confuses \u201cAmerica First\u201d with \u201cAmerica Only\u201d 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.\n\nAt a sprawling, 315,000-square-foot production and storage facility in Pooler operated by Mana Nutrition, Warnock said the group\u2019s purchase of 2 million pounds of peanuts a month from Georgia farmers and employment of 100 Georgians showed that \u201ceven as they are nourishing hungry children all over the world, they are nourishing the Georgia economy.\u201d\n\nIn remarks to reporters, Warnock, who was born and raised in Savannah, criticized the view, widely held among \u201cAmerica First\u201d 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.\n\n\u201cVery often people have this false dichotomy where they\u2019re saying, either we\u2019re supporting America or we\u2019re supporting those people \u2018over there,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cMana is a great example of ways in which, when we invest in this, we are investing in\u201d Georgia.\n\nIn 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.\n\nHe and Mana officials said Monday the bill had been paid. According to Warnock and Mark Moore, Mana\u2019s co-founder and CEO, the secretary of state has indicated a willingness on the part of the administration to fund production of the organization\u2019s lifesaving peanut paste at its Pooler plant as well as one in Fitzgerald, in south-central Ben Hill County.\n\nSavannah Morning News: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock visits Pooler nonprofit after USAID funds pulled, then reinstated\n\nMonday morning, MANA Nutrition CEO Mark Moore gave Sen. Raphael Warnock a tour of the global non-profit\u2019s facilities in Pooler, showing him boxes upon boxes of the company\u2019s meal replacements, still waiting to be shipped out to the sub-Saharan African countries of South Sudan, Chad, and Nigeria, among others, since March.\n\nMonday was Warnock\u2019s first time ever visiting the facility, after helping the nonprofit organization secure funding following the Trump administration\u2019s cuts to USAID contracts.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been great just to have to have the support and positive attention of [Warnock\u2019s] staff,\u201d Moore said. \u201cHaving him advocate for us on the Hill is huge, so to have him come see it in person is amazing and a big honor.\u201d\n\nMANA 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\u2019s health in a matter of weeks, according to MANA.\n\nIn March, 35% of MANA\u2019s 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.\n\n\u201cI was happy to support their efforts in April by directly appealing to Secretary [Marco] Rubio,\u201d Warnock said. \u201cI was able to talk with him directly on the phone about that, and we were able to get that money released, but it\u2019s important that we continue to support this work.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d Warnock said. \u201cHaving food sitting on docks that\u2019s already been delivered rather than feeding hungry people is both immoral and fiscally irresponsible.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs a Georgian and Savannahian, I\u2019m proud of the work that MANA does on behalf of the hungry children around the world,\u201d Warnock said. \u201cAs they are nourishing children around the world, they are nourishing the Georgia economy with jobs all across Georgia, and this work must continue.\u201d\n\nWSAV: Sen. Raphael Warnock visits Pooler nonprofit warehouse\n\nGeorgia Senator Raphael Warnock spent Monday morning touring MANA Nutrition, a Georgia non-profit organization fighting child malnutrition worldwide.\n\nWarnock applauded the work of MANA nutrition as he toured their warehouse. The company employs over 120 Georgians between their Fitzgerald and Pooler operations.\n\n\u201cI think it\u2019s important to stress this because very often people have this false dichotomy where they\u2019re saying either, we\u2019re supporting America or we\u2019re supporting those people over there somewhere else,\u201d Warnock said. \u201cNo, MANA is a great example of the ways in which when we invest in this, we are investing in the Georgia economy.\u201d\n\nFollowing the Pooler visit, Warnock toured Irwin County\u2019s 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.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:02:47Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warnock-visits-mana-nutrition-to-uplift-organizations-work-to-nourish-hungry-children-georgias-economy/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4442841056734324, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}