Share Food Program is a

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

organization working for hunger relief in the

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

region of Pennsylvania, United States. It serves as a

food bank A food bank or food pantry is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distrib ...

to the communities in accordance with

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

civil rights regulations and feeds more than 1 million people each month in Philadelphia and the suburbs. Share Food Program is the largest hunger-relief agency in the Greater Philadelphia area.

History

Share Food Program was founded in 1986 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, focused on increasing access to low-cost food in Philadelphia, using a food co-operative model. Beginning in 1991, it expanded its operations to fight hunger, by getting food to people in need throughout the city. During the COVID-19 outbreak that began in March 2020, the organization partnered with SEAMAAC, a Philadelphia-based non-profit to distribute 1,000 meals and food boxes a day since mid-May 2020. In October 2020, it received grant from

William Penn Foundation The William Penn Foundation is a grant-making foundation established in 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by businessman Otto Haas and his wife Phoebe, and initially called the Phoebe Waterman Foundation. It strives to improve "the quality ...

and, along with other donations, was able to give away 10 million pounds of food. In January 2021, State Senator

Vincent Hughes Vincent J. Hughes (born October 26, 1956) is an American politician who is serving as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, representing the 7th District since 1994. Hughes previously served as a member of the Pennsylvania Hous ...

presented state funding to the Share Food Program for warehouse maintenance. On the National Day of Service, over 100 volunteers participated to distribute food to seniors’ programs and families in need. In February 2021, the organization received a grant from Dunkin Joy in Childhood Foundation. In 2023, Share had raised $28M of a $35M goal to upgrade its food distribution warehouse on West Hunting Park Ave in

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

Overview

Share Food Program distributes food to 1 million needy people each month, over 50% of whom are children, and 12% of whom are seniors or people with disabilities. It also serves 305,000 children through the national school lunch and breakfast program to 69 regional districts in Philadelphia. The food comes from government partners, supermarkets, wholesalers, restaurants, farms and food drives. The organization partners with 150 pantries around Philadelphia as part of its Partner Pantries program. Other programs include food relief, MontCo Hunger Solutions, Nice Roots farm and home deliveries. It also partners with

DoorDash DoorDash, Inc. is an American company operating online food ordering and food delivery. It trades under the symbol DASH. With a 56% market share, DoorDash is the largest food delivery platform in the United States. It also has a 60% market sha ...

, delivering 4,500 boxes of food a month in 2024. In about two hours, more than 500 of 32-pound boxes of food are dispatched to low-income area seniors in need in Philadelphia area counties via DoorDash.

References

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External links

Share Food Programs
501(c)(3) organizations Food security in the United States Hunger relief organizations Non-profit organizations based in Pennsylvania Organizations established in 1986 Organizations based in Philadelphia