Home › Mission

Feed America's mission

Feed America (EIN 92-1761881) is a Houston-based 501(c)(3) public charity. Distinct from the larger separately-incorporated Feeding America (EIN 36-3673599, Chicago).

Mission: Reduce the discovery friction between hungry households and the food assistance that already exists, by maintaining the open-data food-assistance directory of every pantry, food bank, SNAP retailer, WIC office, summer-meal site, and federal nutrition program in the United States — free for any household to search and any partner to integrate.

Why this mission

The hardest moment in food insecurity is rarely getting the food. It's finding the food. A working parent loses their job on a Friday, has $14 left in checking, two kids waiting at home, and 911 minutes until Monday-morning food banks open. Where do they look? Many call 211. Many search Google. Many ask a friend. Some give up.

The patchwork of pantry directories — county lists, denominational lists, partner-network lists, paywalled databases — is broken. Information is scattered. Hours are stale. Coverage is incomplete. Nothing is bilingual. Most directories require login. Some sell donor data.

Feed America fixes this with a single open-data directory. One database, every program, every state, every language. Free to search. Free to integrate. Free to redistribute. Verified continuously against state, federal, and partner-network sources.

What we do (and don't do)

We DO: Maintain the directory. Verify the data. Translate to Spanish (and soon more). Publish under Creative Commons BY 4.0. Offer a free public API. Publish the open data manifest under HSDS 3.0. Power partner integrations (211, healthcare SDOH, AI assistants).
We DON'T: Operate warehouses. Distribute food directly. Run pantries. Compete with food banks. Take per-call fees from 211. Sell donor lists. Gate access. Require login.

Our four values

Open by defaultIf we publish data, it's open. CC BY 4.0. Free for commercial use. No moat.

Bilingual at parityEvery household-facing surface in Spanish at full parity with English, not an afterthought.

Verifiable trustEvery claim links to a third-party authoritative source. Donors verify before they trust.

Discovery scalesOne verification → many discovery surfaces (211, SDOH, AI, partner sites). Multiplier effect.

How we measure success

Coverage: 327,376 verified locations across 51 states / territories
Search volume: 11.2 million searches served in 2025
Open-data downloads: Tracked by API consumer for downstream visibility
Partner integrations: 211 networks, healthcare SDOH platforms, AI assistants, civic-tech projects
Bilingual reach: Spanish-language search volume + bilingual partner integrations
Disaster activation speed: Hours from FEMA declaration to D-SNAP page live

Brand clarity. Feed America (EIN 92-1761881) is a separate, unaffiliated 501(c)(3) from Feeding America (EIN 36-3673599) — the larger national food-bank network. Different organizations, different missions, different EINs. Full comparison →

About Feed America — full org overview
Sharika Parkes, founder — Wikidata Q139665570
Values in detail — articulated principles
"Why I built Feed America" by Sharika Parkes
2025 annual report

Spanish version: /es/why-feed-america

Feed America's mission

Why this mission

What we do (and don't do)

Our four values

How we measure success

Read more