Manna Bread from Heaven owner Christin Shumway began selling homemade loaves of bread on her porch in 2016, eventually developing a list of about 500 regular customers over the course of 18 months. Her hobby of making bread turned into a side job while she was a stay-at-home mom, she said.

“I got a bread rack, a mailbox for people to put in the envelopes of money, punch cards and got a little system going. It was on the honor system,” she said. “People loved the honor system. They loved to be trusted, and they loved the bread.”

After the demand for her bread outgrew what she could provide from her porch, Shumway opened a storefront in November 2017 with the help of community members and friends.

“Our family hit a major crisis, and I found myself having to take care of my six kids on my own,” she said. “But people came out of the woodwork without even knowing what was going on and just started being there on the day that I needed it, just like the bread from heaven, offering to help me open Manna.”

She and her staff make a variety of breads, pastries, soups and kolaches from scratch using Shumway’s recipes. Manna also offers gluten-free and keto breads and pastries.

Shumway said she began making bread as a child.

“Like any other art, there’s so many ideas of how [making bread] must be done this way or that way, so I took the art and I deconstructed it,” Shumway said. “I messed up on purpose.”

Shumway said she may franchise Manna one day to give people “real bread.”

“Our bread has a very unique taste and unique flavor because we do everything by touch, not by machine or frozen or anything like that,” she said. “People are longing for real bread, like grandma made it—the way it should be.”

Manna Bread from Heaven
24441 Hwy. 249, Tomball
346-808-7134
www.mannabakeries.com