Food Rescue US Partners with Celestial Manna to Expand Food Recovery Work in DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia

Food Rescue US provides its web-based app to like-minded, mission-driven organizations to help end hunger and reduce emissions caused by food waste.

Stamford, CT, October 19, 2021 – Food Rescue US is partnering with Celestial Manna by providing the nonprofit organization access to its proprietary app. The Uber-like app enables food recovery organizations to streamline their rescue process and gives them the resources to mobilize thousands of volunteers to distribute fresh, nutritious, donated surplus food. This partnership will enable Celestial Manna to expand their food recovery impact throughout DC, Maryland, Northern Virginia, and beyond. 

Founded in 2011, Food Rescue US currently operates in 39 locations throughout the United States. Food Rescue US has provided 78+ million meals and kept 102+ million pounds of food from landfill. They engage 1,800+ food donors, 11,000+ volunteer food rescuers, and 1,800+ social service agencies to enable their food recovery work.

“At Food Rescue US, we believe in collaborating with like-minded, mission-driven organizations that share our mission of helping to end hunger and food waste, which is why we are honored to share our proprietary app with Celestial Manna,” said Carol Shattuck, CEO of Food Rescue US. “The Food Rescue US app is designed to streamline the food recovery process and reduce the amount of time that staff members spend entering information, organizing rescues, and coordinating volunteers. With this extra time, nonprofits can focus their resources and energy on expanding their programming and increasing their impact.”

Founded in 1986, Celestial Manna celebrated its 35th anniversary this year. Over the years, it has grown into an organization that now serves over 20,000 people each month. They recover excess food from grocery stores, restaurants, and local farms, and distribute the food to those in need in the communities that they serve.

David Robert Lambert, Chief Technology Officer for Celestial Manna, said “Celestial Manna started small 35 years ago and has now grown to 32 headquarters staff and over 300 volunteer drivers and distributors.  We have outgrown our current database system and look forward to working with Food Rescue US to help streamline our operations and reporting capabilities.”

Charlie Mann, the Founder and Executive Director for Celestial Manna, shared, “Celestial Manna is delighted to work together in our common goal to rescue as much food as we can from going into the landfills. Our cooperative effort and teaming together will continue to provide quality nourishment to the vast multitude of food insecure clients in our daily path. We are grateful to have begun to pilot the Food Rescue US app among some of our teams of volunteers for the last two months. We are hearing that our volunteers are finding that the app is efficient and makes it easier to complete reports in a more timely and expeditious way. We look forward to expanding the use of the Food Rescue US app to all of our volunteer pickup drivers.” 

Winfield Clark, Chief Operating Officer for Celestial Manna, shared, “The pursuit of Operational Excellence and improved reporting is an essential part of the Celestial Manna 2021 strategic plan and a critical enabler to our growth. The software platform that Food Rescue US provides allows our volunteers much more flexibility and simplicity in their reporting and will help us improve our reporting compliance KPIs significantly. This is key to our Continuous Improvement plan.  It’s rewarding to partner with this organization of Servant Leaders. I am excited about our partnership and the impact we will make on Food Security together.”