Donations can be be mailed to: Manna Cafe CI, P.O. Box 1122, Chincoteague VA 23336
Donations can be be mailed to: Manna Cafe CI, P.O. Box 1122, Chincoteague VA 23336
We’re Founders & Directors of Manna Café CI, a 501(c)3 non-profit feeding program as well as Founders & Directors of Brand Champs, a marketing consulting company that specializes in helping nonprofit companies in their branding and communications efforts.
For many years, we’ve volunteered in our communities to help people and volunteered for organizations that work to end hunger, including: Rise Against Hunger, Samaritan’s Purse and Feeding America.
During the summer of 2009, we moved from Central NJ to the beautiful island of Chincoteague. In January 2017, we started Manna Café CI to feed people’s bodies and their souls. Every Monday, we work with a team of passionate hard-working volunteers to spread the Light by serving free hot lunches and delivering free hot lunches to homebound people. We believe God gives each of us gifts and we’re supposed to use them to spread love and kindness. We consider it a blessing to serve our community!
Our parents were passionate mentors as well as wonderful examples of using God’s gifts to spread love. Our daughter, Maggie, shares the Light through her volunteer work to end hunger.
We've received the 2018 Good Samaritan Award from the Electric Co-operatives of VA, MD and DE for “Concern for the Community;" the 2019 Outstanding Citizens Award from the Eastern Shore of VA Chamber of Commerce “In recognition of outstanding contribution to the Eastern Shore Communities," and the 2021 Citizens of the Year Award from the Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce. In 2019, Manna Café CI received the Better Delmarva WMDT/Mountaire Award “For going above and beyond to help people on the Eastern Shore."
We can be reached at fran@mannacafeci.org and mrbill@mannacafeci.org,
I’ve been involved in community service and advocacy since I was young, having been an active member of Girl Scouts and my church's youth group.
During my time in nursing school, I also participated in organizing and presenting a community health service project on the subject of proper oral care for older adults. Through faith-based, social and educational organizations, I’ve been able to serve my community and foster a passion for helping others.
Along with my parents, Fran & Bill, I’ve been a passionate activist with organizations that have the goal of ending hunger in our lifetime including Rise Against Hunger. I began volunteering at Manna Café CI at the beginning when visiting my parents on Chincoteague Island.
It’s my goal to incorporate health promotion, education and advocacy into Manna Café CI so guests’ bodies, minds and souls are nourished. I currently reside in Princeton New Jersey with my mischievous cat Morty and visit the beautiful island of Chincoteague whenever I can. I work as a medical oncology RN at Princeton Medical Group.
I’m a pastry chef turned entrepreneur and I’ve been involved with Manna Café CI since its beginning in 2017.
What started as a desire to help people and a need for a reason to make delicious baked goods, grew into a love for this organization and the many needs it meets for the community. My culinary background is helpful to Manna Café CI for coming up with meal ideas and sourcing ingredients. I also contribute to fundraising dinners and lunches by preparing desserts.
I’ve been actively involved with volunteer work since I was a teen. When I was in middle school and high school, I participated in my church’s mission trips to help others.
My husband Dylan, brother-in-law Nate, sister-in-law Kate and I are chefs and owners of Pico Taqueria on Chincoteague Island. We help raise funds for Manna Café CI as well as donate food. We love the community of Chincoteague and how Manna Café CI is helping. And, I look forward to helping the organization grow and prosper.
Every month, when Pico is closed, I help to pack 300 boxes of food for distribution. Every month during the year, I help on food distribution day by organizing applications and recording the number of people and households helped.
After a career as a US Postal Service Rural Carrier in MD, I retired and moved with my husband, Jimmy, and our 2 dogs to Chincoteague in 2018.
In the fall of that year, I was searching for opportunities to volunteer on the Island. Our realtor, Margaret Nichols, (the owner and broker of Seaside Properties), suggested I might be interested in volunteering at the Island Theater Friday Night Movies during the winter months. Jimmy and I began volunteering and loved the opportunity to meet people.
However, I was still looking for a way to volunteer throughout the year, using the gifts God has given me. That’s when I heard about Manna Café and how they were helping people on the Island and surrounding communities.
When I first walked into Manna Café on a Monday in December 2018 to inquire about volunteering, I immediately felt the love of the Manna Café volunteer team and I've been volunteering every week since then.
On Mondays, I help with homebound lunch preparation, packaging & delivering. Then, you'll see me in the hall at the beverage station.
Once a month, I help to pack 300 boxes of food for distribution. On distribution day, I greet each person and instruct them where to pick up their food boxes.
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