In the Delaware Valley, more than 12,000 newborns each year face this risk, and its devastating long-term physical, mental and social effects. For a number of reasons, many of these babies’ caregivers need formula to meet their nutritional needs. Infant formula is expensive, which makes it difficult for struggling families to provide the consistent nutrition their babies need to grow and develop properly. And so babies are often fed watered-down formula in order to stretch formula dollars or moved to cow’s milk and/or solid foods sooner than their developing digestive systems can handle, putting them at risk for hunger and/or malnutrition.

Philabundance helps ensure that all Delaware Valley babies have a healthy start in life.  Every year during Mother’s Day weekend we reach out to congregations to join Philabundance in fighting infant hunger and malnutrition by taking up a collection to support BabyManna. Every dollar of your congregation’s gift to BabyManna is used to purchase and distribute infant formula and products among our member agencies throughout the Delaware Valley.

Since 1994, congregations and individuals have helped raise more than $579,000 to help infants at risk of hunger and/or malnutrition.