Our Story

Frances and Earle Drennen began their mission to bring natural foods to west central Alabama when they opened their first store, Harmony Natural Foods, in 1972. Harmony was located on the Strip in Tuscaloosa where Twelve 25 bar is today.

The store's organic products were an oasis in the area. Homemade whole-grain bread, microgreens growing in the front windows, housemade tofu, and bulk legumes and grains were just some of their offerings, considered exotic at the time.

Circa 1972, Earle and Frances in the doorway of Harmony Natural Foods

In 1977, they sold Harmony and moved to Boulder, Colorado with the notion to start a natural foods store there. Seeing that need already met in that community, they decided to return to Tuscaloosa to further their mission of bringing natural foods and healthy living to Alabama.

On April 29, 1980 they opened Manna Grocery & Deli on 15th Street, offering many of the same healthy and organic options they had in their previous store. With composting bins and a small garden by the side wall, Manna Grocery stood out as a true pioneer in the natural foods industry in Alabama.

By 1989, the business had outgrown the location and Manna moved to its present location on McFarland Boulevard. It was here where their dream of a different kind of grocery store grew to one of the region’s best-known sources for natural and organic foods, as ideas about health food became more mainstream. The Manna Deli expanded and refined into one of Tuscaloosa’s best-loved restaurants, with many locals joining together for lunch daily. 

After Earle’s passing in 2023, Frances began to think about a succession plan for the business.

In January 2026, Anna Drennen, Earle and Frances’ second daughter, joined the business as co-owner with Frances. Anna spent many days in the store as a child, doing homework in the Deli while her parents finished their workday. She later worked at Manna for six years as she completed undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Alabama. After a long career in Higher Education operations and project management at universities across the country, Anna returns with a wide-ranging expertise to go with her longstanding belief in the mission of Manna Grocery.