About Us

Welcome to Celestial Manna Celebrating More Than Three Decades!

Celestial Manna is a faith-based 501(c)(3) food recovery nonprofit founded in 1986 by Charlie Mann. What began as a means to feed Charlie’s own family has grown into an organization that supports over 20,000 people monthly in DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia and also has significant representations in California and Nevada.

Our primary mission is to help our neighbors who are food insecure. What is food insecurity? Food insecurity is about making tough choices – Do we eat dinner this week or do we pay the gas bill? Do I buy food for the weekend or do I buy diapers? Do I put money on my Metro pass to get to work or do I eat lunch today? It means children are waiting for school to start on Monday for the free breakfast and lunch, because that’s the only time they have consistent access to food.

How does Celestial Manna fight food insecurity? We recover food from grocery stores, restaurants and local farms that would otherwise be discarded and we Share in the Harvest! With the help of a very large and dedicated group of volunteers, we are able to pick up and distribute these donations daily in communities where people do not have reliable access to nutritious food. We support people from all walks of life and diverse ethnicity: blue-collar workers, low-income families, single-parent households, and more. We know hunger can strike anywhere and we do not ask questions when people request help from us. We gauge success by the countless personal testimonies from individuals and families we help in our communities. Ours is a labor of love and we work for smiles!