A Brief History

Of Shared Harvest Foodbank

On March 3, 1983 the foodbanking concept was presented to a group of folks from churches, social services organizations, local government, Civil Defense and United Way.

On June 26, 1983, we delivered the first load of food to Family Services ‘Summer Food for Kids’ program as a ‘mobile’ foodbank – we had no warehouse at that point.

 

On October 1, 1983, we opened our first warehouse. From June to December 1983, we distributed over 300,000 pounds of food to 12 member agencies in Butler County.

 

In March of 1984, we incorporated as a 501 (c) (3) non profit organization in the State of Ohio, receiving our final ruling from the IRS in May 1986

 

By the end of 1984, we were serving Butler and Warren counties with all product and seven other counties with USDA.

 

In 1985 our USDA territory expanded to 19 counties and our Second Harvest (now known as Feeding America) territory grew to include Preble, Darke and Miami Counties.  Those were the days of the free cheese give away’s.  We were receiving nearly 9 tractor trailer loads of 5 pound blocks of American Cheese each month.

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In 1986, we organized all of our USDA mass distribution locations to encourage participants to write letters on paper plates to stop the de-funding of the USDA program.  We generated over 25,000 letters – our first empty plate campaign restored funding for USDA and increased the number of items available.  We purchased the warehouse we are now located in on December 26, 1986, including the warehousing complex and the 10.363 acres of ground it sits on
In 1988, we became a certified affiliate of Second Harvest (now Feeding America), which provided direct access to food donations nationwide.

 

In 1991, we opened our food salvage division to accept damaged 
History (continued) product that needed to be sorted, evaluated and boxed for distribution to our member agencies. Became a founding member of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.

 

In 1995 sold our salvage warehouse in Middletown and combined all operations in one location. Built our first freezer.

 

In 1998, all of the other tenants in our warehousing/office complex moved out and we took over the entire complex for warehousing and office space.

 

In 2000, completed our first capital improvement project, rebuilding 6000 square feet of dry storage and building our second freezer.

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In 2002, a small group of food pantry directors, OSU Extension and SHF began developing a Choice Pantry model – which allows food pantry clients to select their own foods. Today, our model is used state wide and nationally to help food pantries transition from the traditional pre-packed model of food distribution to “client choice” which integrates ancillary services like nutrition education and SNAP (food stamp) Outreach into the shopping experience.

 

In 2003, SHF began distributing food directly to senior citizens through USDA’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program, at the time serving an average of 1,570 senior citizens each month, up to 1,740 today.

 

In 2005, SHF became the first Foodbank in the country awarded a Food Stamp Outreach grant to identify and reduce the barriers families were experiencing in applying for Food Stamp benefits. Now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), our outreach program has been integrated into the Choice Food Pantry model and with three staff who out-station in food pantries helping clients apply for SNAP benefits.

 

In 2006/2007 school year, we launched the BackPack program in Butler County which provided nutritious and easy to prepare food to an average of 600 elementary students each week who were identified as exhibiting signs of chronic hunger as identified by school staff.  The bags of food are provided to these students to use on the weekends when other resources may not be available. Now the BackPack program serves students each week in 91 elementary schools and nine high schools in 18 public school districts and one private school.

Over the past 36 years, SHF has grown to distribute food to over 90 charitable organizations in five Southwestern Ohio Counties; Butler, Darke, Miami, Preble and Warren. In 2018, SHF distributed 5.2 million pounds of food through our membership in these five southwest Ohio Counties.  SHF acts as a regional agent for the administration and distribution of USDA TEFAP commodities through four sister foodbanks, serving an additional 26 counties in Ohio.