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OUR STORY
Farm Share Distributes Food at No Charge
Farm Share was established in 1991 as a means to eliminate food waste. Since its inception, we have grown to accommodate a growing hunger. Many large groups collect food donations from the public and charge a per-pound “shared maintenance fee” to your local church, soup kitchen, etc. for this food. These fees add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. If the agency cannot afford the shared maintenance fees, they do not get the food. Smaller grass-root agencies that cannot afford the shared maintenance fees get left out in the cold. Farm Share gives food to our recipient agencies without fees of any kind.
The Only Charitable Produce Food Bank in the Eastern United States
This means that while most groups focus on canned and processed food donations, our mission remains focused on re-packing fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown away. It costs more to handle this kind of food, but fresh produce is simply more nutritious than canned, and there is a nearly unlimited supply of it being thrown out every year. Farm Share receives food in bulk and has the resources to sort, pack, store and ship tractor-trailer loads of fresh food.
Low Administrative Cost
Farm Share’s administrative costs are kept surprisingly low by partnering with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. This provides easy access to produce farmers, packers, brokers and wholesalers who freely donate fresh fruits and vegetables, saving money on transportation costs. By utilizing the supply of bulk produce donations (42,000 lbs at a time) from Florida farmers, we don’t need to spend money on soliciting and collecting individual donations from hundreds or thousands of donation sites.
Public/Private Partnership
Farm Share has a public/private partnership with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (which provides warehouse facilities, support staff, equipment, services, and state oversight). More than 22,000,000 pounds of fresh and nutritious fruits and vegetables are shipped each year to participating agencies throughout the Eastern seaboard.
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