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The past two years were hard for Tracy and Sheldon Robison, who went through home foreclosure, job loss and a diabetes diagnosis, and the Hyattsville couple could barely feed themselves and their three children.

They turned to a food donation program to make ends meet and pulled themselves out of foreclosure and into new jobs. But their hard work didn't end there — on the heels of her own crisis, Tracy Robison founded a pantry program similar to the one she had relied on so she could help make life easier and cabinets fuller for other struggling families in the area.

In June 2007, one month after entering foreclosure, Tracy, 45, began using Angel Food, a nonprofit organization that provides food to thousands of people across the country. Once a month, Tracy drove 150 miles round trip to Frederick, the closest Angel Food site in the region, to pick up a box of food so the family could make ends meet.

Just a month later, in August 2007, Tracy Robison talked with the pastor of her church, New Song Bible Fellowship Church in Bowie, and began organizing Manna Ministries, a local Angel Food affiliate. In November 2007, she launched Manna Ministries at the church.

"It only took one time for me to see what a great ministry it was," she said.

One box of food includes fresh and frozen items like chicken, meat and produce. The cost is $30, half of its retail value, and it feeds a family of four for about a week.

The Angel Food program buys food at discounted prices from food producers and vendors and then ships it across the United States.

There are no applications or income requirements to participate. Customers order their food boxes from each month's menu, and the food is delivered to the church one Saturday each month.

"It's good food, not second-rate," Tracy Robison said. "People have a tendency to think if it's a ministry or program, you're getting second-rate food, and that's not so."

In November 2007 there were 22 customers with less than $1,000 in orders, she said. Today, the program has close to $10,000 in orders and serves more than 250 families, or 475 people, most from Prince George's, Anne Arundel and Calvert counties and Washington, D.C.

Manna Ministries receives $1 from Angel Food for every box of food sold, and the organization also accepts private donations, Tracy Robison said. The church also helps to fund the program.

"We want to be a self-supporting ministry so we aren't burdening [the church]. That's why we're growing, because of the support at [the church]," she said.

"Watching it grow is just amazing to watch," said Demetra Bennett, 43, of Severn, a Manna Ministries volunteer and the wife of the church's pastor, Martin Bennett Jr.

"There are other programs, but for some reason [people are] drawn to ours. The experience is one of what I would describe as a big family gathering — we're not only helping people feed people from a physical standpoint but ministering to them spiritually, despite the fact that they need food."

La'keshia Pitts, 35, of Landover is a single mother of six — all under the age of 16 — who began using Manna Ministries in January and doesn't plan on stopping.

"I have two boys who eat like grown men. The girls do, too," she said. "With this economy, it's so hard to make sure they're well fed and there's enough [food]."

The help from Manna Ministries has enabled Pitts to shave $80 to $140 off her $400 monthly grocery bill, she said.

Manna Ministries operates with a core team of 25 volunteers, adults and youth, known as Manna Servants. Tracy Robison spends at least 20 hours each month on the ministry, from volunteer meetings to collecting orders and food distribution, in addition to her full-time job as a customer service representative for Metro in Silver Spring.

Because the program has grown, Manna Ministries now rents a 27-foot truck, which costs $140 each month plus gas, to drive to the Angel Food site in Frederick to load up its food orders, Tracy Robison said. When the truck returns to the church, nearly 20 people are waiting to assemble orders for pickup.

"We want it to keep growing. The more it grows, we know more people are being blessed," she said.

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net.

April orders are due April 12; the next distribution is from 11 a.m. to noon April 25 at New Song Bible Fellowship Church, at 11911 Lanham-Severn Road in Bowie.

Manna Ministries accepts cash, money orders or food stamps.

For information or a menu, call 301-809-9871, ext. 18, or e-mail mannaministries5000@gmail.com.