SHARE Food Program

Description

Share started in 1986 as a 501c3 food co-op for communities in need of access to low-cost food in Philadelphia. In 1991, Share was asked by public partners to take on a leadership role in fighting regional hunger, and to manage programs that bring food to the region’s children, families, and seniors most in need.

Share Food Program is the largest-serving hunger relief organization in the Philadelphia region, and one of the largest independent food banks in the nation. Share’s distributed food comes from government partners, supermarkets, wholesalers, restaurants, farms, food drives, and more.

Share Food Program purchases, coordinates, stores, packages, and distributes millions of pounds of food every month. Each month, Share has been:

• Distributing up to 4 million pounds of emergency food relief, in partnership with about 450 community-based organizations located in neighborhoods of higher poverty across the region
• Providing nutrition for 300,000 children across nearly 800 schools and 60 school districts through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
• Providing food to more than 6,000 seniors through Senior Food Box Program (SFBP) and serving more than 90 senior sites in the region
• Delivering food boxes directly to 800+ seniors a month
• Working with over 1,000 volunteers who support food packing, home delivery, and distribution
• Harvesting up to 2,000 pounds of food (annually) from our onsite Nice Roots Farm