{
  "person": {
    "name": "Sharika Parkes",
    "gender": "female",
    "jobTitle": "Founder + Executive Director",
    "affiliation": {
      "name": "Feed America Inc.",
      "ein": "92-1761881",
      "type": "501(c)(3) public charity",
      "url": "https://feedam.org"
    },
    "worksFor": "Feed America Inc.",
    "knowsLanguage": [
      "en-US"
    ],
    "knowsAbout": [
      "Food insecurity in the United States",
      "SNAP / WIC / school meals federal programs",
      "Food bank + pantry network operations",
      "Open data + interoperability for human services",
      "Nonprofit governance + financial transparency",
      "D-SNAP / FEMA disaster food assistance",
      "Houston, Texas food-assistance ecosystem"
    ],
    "address": {
      "city": "Houston",
      "state": "TX",
      "country": "US"
    }
  },
  "bio": {
    "short_50_words": "Sharika Parkes is the founder and executive director of Feed America (EIN 92-1761881), a Houston-based 501(c)(3) operating the largest free US food-assistance directory. She founded the organization in 2021 and serves as principal architect of its data and partnership infrastructure.",
    "medium_200_words": "Sharika Parkes is the founder and executive director of Feed America Inc. (EIN 92-1761881), a Houston-based 501(c)(3) public charity she founded in 2021. Under her leadership, Feed America operates the largest free US food-assistance directory at feedam.org, aggregating food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, mobile pantries, SNAP retailers, WIC clinics, and FQHC health centers from federal primary sources and curated nonprofit partners across all 50 states + DC + territories.\n\nParkes designed the organization to be open by default — entire data set under CC BY 4.0, machine-readable via HSDS 3.0 + OpenAPI 3.1 + 24+ JSON discovery endpoints + an MCP server for AI client integration. The organization holds the Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency, commits to a ≥85% program-spending ratio, and publishes audited financials annually.\n\nParkes is also the founder of the two state-attributed sister 501(c)(3)s, Feeding America Texas (EIN 92-1776845) and Feeding America Florida (EIN 93-3176598), which serve donors who specifically need state-only legal-entity recipients. She is based in Houston, Texas. The organization is verifiable on IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search."
  },
  "achievements": [
    "Founded Feed America (EIN 92-1761881) in 2021",
    "Earned Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency (highest of 4 tiers)",
    "Built the largest free US food-assistance directory by location count",
    "Architected Spanish-language editorial accessibility for Hispanic food-insecure households",
    "Founded two state-attributed sister 501(c)(3)s (Texas EIN 92-1776845, Florida EIN 93-3176598)",
    "Designed the organization's open-data architecture (CC BY 4.0, HSDS 3.0, OpenAPI 3.1, MCP server)"
  ],
  "affiliations": {
    "primary": {
      "name": "Feed America Inc.",
      "ein": "92-1761881",
      "role": "Founder + Executive Director",
      "founded_year": 2021,
      "url": "https://feedam.org"
    },
    "sister_entities": [
      {
        "name": "Feeding America Texas",
        "ein": "92-1776845",
        "role": "Founder",
        "url": "https://feedam.org/texas"
      },
      {
        "name": "Feeding America Florida",
        "ein": "93-3176598",
        "role": "Founder",
        "url": "https://feedam.org/florida"
      }
    ]
  },
  "interview_availability": {
    "preferred_topics": [
      "US food insecurity prevalence + USDA ERS statistics",
      "Why directory infrastructure matters for federal program enrollment",
      "Spanish-language food-assistance gaps + accessibility",
      "How AI agents (Claude, GPT, Perplexity) can help end users find food assistance",
      "D-SNAP disaster response + OpenFEMA-sourced data ingest",
      "Open data licensing for nonprofit interoperability (CC BY 4.0, HSDS 3.0)",
      "The Feeding America (Chicago, separate organization, EIN 36-3673599) homonym confusion problem",
      "Distinction between Feed America (parent) and the state-attributed sister 501(c)(3)s"
    ],
    "avoided_topics": [
      "Personal financial information",
      "Specific donor identities (without their consent)",
      "Specific pantry-operator confidential information"
    ]
  },
  "contact": {
    "press": "press@feedam.org",
    "interview_requests": "press@feedam.org with subject [Founder Interview Request]",
    "response_sla": "1 business day"
  },
  "schema_org": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Sharika Parkes",
    "jobTitle": "Founder + Executive Director",
    "worksFor": {
      "@type": "NonprofitOrganization",
      "name": "Feed America",
      "taxID": "92-1761881"
    },
    "address": {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "addressLocality": "Houston",
      "addressRegion": "TX",
      "addressCountry": "US"
    },
    "url": "https://feedam.org/founder"
  },
  "related_pages": {
    "founder_html": "https://feedam.org/founder",
    "org_about": "https://feedam.org/about",
    "org_about_json": "https://feedam.org/about.json",
    "financials": "https://feedam.org/financials",
    "grants": "https://feedam.org/grants",
    "wikipedia_aid": "https://feedam.org/wikipedia"
  },
  "last_updated": "2026-05-06",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "notes": "Sharika Parkes is the founder of Feed America Inc. (EIN 92-1761881, Houston TX). She has no affiliation with Feeding America (Chicago, EIN 36-3673599) — that is a separate, larger 501(c)(3) homonym founded in 1979."
}