Moonlit Suppers…More than just a Cookbook

Greetings! Melony van der Merwe here and I am the founder of Manna Moon, a movement nurturing deep community and personal transformation. I would like your help in order to produce, publish and market my very first cookbook - Moonlit Suppers: Stories, Recipes and Rituals from the Manna Moon Table - which is going to come out this October!

I moved from my home country South Africa to the United States almost 20 years ago - only bringing with me a suitcase and my cookbook collection which I still have today. When my partner and I at the time went our separate ways, and with no family or close friends nearby, I was yearning for that familiar feeling of home. And I was craving my family’s Sunday lunches back in the town where I grew up. Being the natural connector that I am, I started gathering acquaintances in my apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where I lived then (I currently live in Miami), to cook for them. I did not just want people to make conversation, I wanted to create an atmosphere where people could share more about who they are authentically and what highs and lows they were navigating.

Over the past 15 years while working full time marketing sustainable travel, I was also cooking for my community through my Manna Moon Dinner Ceremonies. Food is the ultimate connecting force for me. I consider myself to be a Nomadic Epicurean who eats through her world in order to make sense of it. Cooking anchors me and raises my energy during challenging times.

Growing up, it was not common for our people, which is a unique culture in South Africa, and for my parents to say that they loved us. However, I felt the love in the kitchen.

Food like in so many other cultures, was a key ingredient in the gatherings that took place in our home, and both my parents played their roles. My mother always cooking and nurturing her family with traditional regional recipes cooked in black cast iron pots and pans, while my father - like most men - owned the grilling which included lamb as well as seafood like whole fish that was locally found.

A few years ago I decided that I was not going to have children. Because there are so many in the world. I always knew I was going to be a mother, but realized that it can be experienced in different ways. I did not have to birth a child through my body to express my maternal nature. So I decided I am going to mother the people around my dinner table who are navigating change.

And because of this and all the love I felt in my family kitchen, I now express my love through food and cooking for my community. Which is why just over a month ago, I stepped full time into my purpose of realizing my vision for Manna Moon which is to help calibrate the energetic balance of the planet through shared meals and nurtured community.

Since moving to the United States, I also rediscoverd my passion for writing. Not only does cooking anchor me, writing helps me to process a lot of my complicated and triggered emotions. So the cookbook is not just about recipes, it will also reflect on the common themes and unique stories from the Manna Moon table. You will see yourself represented in this book. Which is what everyone does at the end of a Manna Moon Dinner Ceremony. It will help you realize that you are never alone and that we are all connected. The book also serves as a guide for personal and spiritual transformation and how to hold space for community and individuals in need of letting go of what has come full circle so to use that cleared space to manifest what they are wanting instead.

Doing these dinners helped me to see the deep need for connection and emotional intimacy. Our digitally over-connected world, more people than ever before working and living remotely, plus a decline of religious affiliations, is why I am passionate about bringing the Manna Moon experience into your home. And with the demand from my community to share the recipes from my dinners, it was clear that this book was needed on so many levels.

Through Moonlit Suppers and Manna Moon, I want to inspire and equip people to get back to gathering for a meal, and be deeply present with one another. And to make the art of sharing a meal, a ceremonial experience. Some people heal through being a doctor, a yoga teacher, a counselor, I do it through a home cooked meal.

Moonlit Suppers is going to be a very beautiful hardcover of around 300 pages of approximately 9 x 1.25 x 11.75 or so inches. And it will include not just healthy traditional recipes, from around the world, it will also include menus for the different moon phases so that we can honor change. It will contain stories of transformation, as well as rituals to help you practice being the change you wish to feel.

As this is a community focussed endeavor, I need your help to raise $40,000 dollars to cover the cost of a quality production, its first run of printing, and marketing of this transformational piece of art, that I hope people will use as some sort of guide or even sacred scripture - if you will - as I want more people to gather intentionally to build resilient communities and reach our highest selves.

Cost Breakdown to Plan, Produce, Launch and Market Moonlit Suppers:

1. Planning:

- Research and Development: $2,000

- Project Management: $1,500

- Legal Fees: $1,500

Total Planning Cost: $5,000

2. Production:

- Writing and Editing: $5,000

- Photography, Styling and Design: $6,000

- Printing and Publishing: $8,000

Total Production Cost: $19,000

3. Launching:

- Website Development: $2,000

- Launch Event/PR: $2,500

- Packaging and Shipping: $3,000

Total Launching Cost: $7,500

4. Marketing:

- Social Media Advertising: $2,500

- Influencer Collaborations: $4,000

- Email Marketing Campaigns: $2,000

Total Marketing Cost: $8,500

Total Cost Breakdown:

- Planning: $5,000

- Production: $19,000

- Launching: $7,500

- Marketing: $8,500

Total Estimated Cost: *$40,000

*Actual costs may vary depending on specific needs, vendors, and market conditions.

We are aiming for Moonlit Suppers to come out this October in time for Christmas, and to help you be intentional about the new year in fostering community and a transformational practice.

I am so excited for you to experience the magic that this book promises, and I want you to use it to spiritually as well as physically nourish yourself AND your tribe through the changing times of your lives.

Kindly see below the options in which you can support and help to fuel this meaningful movement through helping us realize Moonlit Support.

Thank you in advance for any assistance that you may be able to offer.