About

What is Manna Cafe Ministries? In a nutshell, MCM is the realization of a God-given dream that entails feeding, loving, and nurturing the poor and homeless.

Founders and pastors of Manna Cafe’ Ministries, Kenny and Vicki York have a combined 16 years experience serving the poor. In fact, Kenny has been involved in ministry and serving the poor to some extent most of his life. From 2004-2008, he was on staff at an inner city ministry in Nashville. Among his responsibilities were preparing food and overseeing Meal of Hope, an outreach for those living in the Jo Johnson projects of the city.

Each week, the Meal of Hope team fed between 50 and 200 people. Kenny also oversaw the food pantry, which distributed more than 200 bags of food each week, and supervised the food preparation for hundreds of missionaries as they came through the Nashville area.

In April 2006, Kenny was ordained and deemed the ministry’s “Street Pastor.” Vicki, an editor for a Christian publishing company, volunteered several times a week at the same inner city ministry. The two met while ministering to the homeless and were married in July of ’08. They immediately began serving the homeless together by taking bread and muffins into Tent City and serving the occasional hot meal along with a team of volunteers.

During the winter of ’09-’10, Kenny and Vicki began to feel God pulling them toward Clarksville, TN. After seeking counsel from area pastors and other community leaders, they packed their belongings and moved to Clarksville in late April of 2010. Three days later, the devastating flood of ’10 hit the area, and they hit the ground running in the area of disaster relief.

Within weeks–and with the help of a hard-working, dedicated core team of volunteers–MCM was carrying out a community meal for the homeless and poor on Thursday nights (on Pageant Ln.). Within a month or two, and in conjunction with a local church community, MCM was involved in a Saturday morning breakfast as well. In the month of August, a third meal, Tuesday Cafe (on Providence Blvd.) became possible. Therefore, MCM is presently offering three community meals per weeks: Tuesday Cafe, Thursday Cafe, and Saturday Breakfast Cafe.  Via these three events, hundreds of individuals receive a hot meal as well as a “goody bag,” i.e. a bag of non-perishable food items to use throughout the week.

What makes MCM unique is its mobility. Meals are served and food is distributed from various locations throughout the community. MCM is committed to going to where the need exists.

During the week, MCM distributes food boxes to those in need from the Manna House at 1319 E. Franklin St. They also conduct Mobile Pantries (in conjunction with Second Harvest Food Bank), during which they give away a trailer truckload of food from a single location on a Saturday afternoon. For more about the Mobile Pantry, see the Food Pantry/Mobile Pantry page.

If you’d like to learn more about Manna Cafe, feel free to check out the other pages on this site, visit our FaceBook page, come by our headquarters at 1319 E. Franklin, or visit a Mobile Cafe meal.

Vision Statement

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly I say to you in as much as you did to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to Me’” [Matt. 2:40, KJV].

Our motto, drawn from this scripture, is “Being Jesus to Jesus.” As followers of Jesus, we desire to become more and more like Him.