Integrated design-build firm A M King has begun a large-scale renovation of a Savannah, Ga.-area facility for MANA Nutrition Inc. that will produce the non-profit’s ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and ready-to-use supplemental food (RUSF). 

The 320,000-sq.-ft. unfinished spec warehouse, when complete, will allow MANA to boost production of innovative new products, serving life-saving food to millions of children worldwide who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The company plans to hire more than 100 employees when the facility is finished in January 2025.

A M King and Mana Nutrition hosted an official groundbreaking event on July 17. The day’s festivities included a shovel ceremony, visits from various state and local dignitaries and tours of the facility.

MANA Nutrition was co-founded in 2009 with a dream of ending SAM by making high quality, low-cost therapeutic food. MANA, which stands for Mother Administered Nutritive Aid, is headquartered in Matthews, N.C., and operates an 80,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Fitzgerald, Ga. At this location, MANA can produce more than 120,000 lbs. of RUTF per day, which is enough to feed 4,000 malnourished children for six weeks. The product, fortified with protein and vitamins, comes in an easy-to-open food-grade packet, does not require added water, cooking or refrigeration, and has a two-year shelf life. 

“As a nonprofit, MANA’s goal is to serve as many children as we can, as efficiently as possible,” says MANA Nutrition CEO Mark Moore. “The market we service is not a traditional market because the end user doesn’t have money to buy it. A traditional company would seek to maximize profit, yet we are always trying to maximize the impact of limited food aid budgets by producing lower and lower priced, high-quality products.”

Moore expects MANA to one day be capable of producing enough food to feed 10 million children per year. To that end, the MANA team pursued additional production space in Pooler -- about 10 miles from the Port of Savannah – which A M King will transform into a state-of-the-art food processing facility.

“As we looked to expand and build out our Savannah facility, we wanted an experienced design partner who could also execute and manage the plan,” Moore says. “A M King was the perfect choice for us. What helped even more was the alignment of A M King management with our business. As an employee-owned company we find their ethos very similar to ours. Our new facility will be maximized with racking to be as efficient and technically modern as possible, so that our shipping and logistics operations are world class. But we also wanted to dedicate about 30 percent of the facility to the opportunity to expand production with products we don’t presently make at our Fitzgerald facility. This facility will be unique due to its vicinity to a port and its ability to scale up production quickly.”

The scope of work on this project includes extensive renovation of the existing facility and construction of three additional buildings on site. These include bulk tank unloading, which will allow MANA to transport oil and paste from tankers to the interior tank farm. The sugar pulverizer room grinds granulated sugar into powdered sugar for the RUTF mix. Lastly, the peanut skin house collects peanut skins from processing, and these are used by local farmers for soil nutrition.

In the main building, an observation platform will span the entire width of the main facility, allowing MANA to share its mission and process for making RUTF and RUSF with facility visitors. Viewers will be able to see the arrival of Georgia peanuts through every processing stage as they move through roasting, mixing and packaging. 

Like any food facility that A M King designs and builds, putting sanitary design measures in place is paramount. In this facility, there will be a number of elements with this focus, including employment of automatic guided vehicles (AGV), which will minimize human interaction with the product. Additionally, the facility will be organized into separate processing zones for raw versus ready-to-eat peanuts that are used in the food packets. Each of these areas has unique air pressure requirements, as well as strict Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) procedures for employees.

In addition, several sustainability elements will be implemented, including infrastructure for solar panels that will be installed on half of the roof. MANA’s intention is for solar power to exclusively light the building. A M King will also incorporate daylighting initiatives by bringing an abundance of natural light into the facility. 

This design-build project includes design and construction of a 5,600-sq.-ft. bulk unloading room; a 3,200-sq.-ft. interior tank farm; a 7,800-sq.-ft. dry material handling area; an 877-sq.-ft. peanut skin house; a 10,500-sq.-ft. perishable area for raw peanuts; a 5,300-sq.-ft. roasting room; 5,000-sq.-ft. for a roasting RTE area where peanuts are ground into paste; a 676-sq.-ft. sugar pulverizer room; an 8,400-sq.-ft. mixing room; a 164,000-sq.-ft. dry storage with 42,000 pallet positions; a 20,600-sq.-ft. packaging room; an 11,200-sq.-ft. future processing space; a 3,200-sq.-ft. maintenance; 54,022-sq.-ft. of support spaces, including MCC/electrical room, product transfer rooms, offices, lab space and maintenance and storage in the process areas; and 27 dock positions. 

A two-story, 19,600-sq.-ft. office will feature an open office area for employees with a mixture of private offices and touchdown spaces; a sizeable, open breakroom; an onboarding and training room; a larger conference room; a small kitchenette; a gym; and a storage area for product samples. The mezzanine level --- which connects to the observation corridor over the process areas --- will accommodate the addition of new employees in the future.

“We are thrilled that A M King will be able to assist MANA Nutrition with its noble mission,” says A M King Business Unit Leader Andre Harris “We understand that lives are literally on the line and that the sooner that MANA can ship product, the sooner lives can be saved. Our food industry expertise, coupled with our record of successfully completed food processing projects on an accelerated timeline, makes this the ideal partnership.”