An algorithm for multiple description coding (MDC) based on Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) is presented. Based on the parameters of the GMM, the algorithm combines MDC scalar quantizers, yielding a source-optimized vector MDC system. The performance is evaluated on a speech spectrum source in terms of mean-squared error and log spectral distortion. It is demonstrated experimentally that the proposed system outperforms single description coding and repetition coding over a wide range of channel failure probabilities. The proposed algorithm has a complexity that is linear in rate and dimension while retaining a near optimal vector quantizer point density.