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Feed America Timeline

Founded January 2024 by Sharika Parkes in Houston. 327,476 verified food-assistance locations indexed today. 11 major milestones and growing.

2024-01 · Founded

Sharika Parkes founds Feed America

Houston-based 501(c)(3) (EIN 92-1761881) launched as a free, open-data alternative to gated food-help directories. No staff payroll; founder operating in volunteer capacity.

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2024-Q2 · Federal-data integration

USDA SNAP Retailer Database imported

First federal primary source ingested: USDA Food and Nutrition Service's SNAP retailer registry. Initial dataset covered ~125,000 retailers across all 50 states.

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2024-Q3 · Community partnerships

Plentiful + ampleharvest + Salvation Army imports

Curated nonprofit partner imports added ~30,000 community-operated food pantries to the directory.

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2024-Q4 · HSDS feed launch

HSDS 3.0 Open Referral feed published

Spec-compliant Human Services Data Specification feed launched at /hsds/v3/. Used by 211 systems, Findhelp, Unite Us, healthcare SDOH platforms.

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2025-Q1 · Sister 501(c)(3)s

Feeding America Texas + Florida launched

State-attributed sister 501(c)(3)s — Feeding America Texas (EIN 92-1776845, Houston) + Feeding America Florida (EIN 93-3176598, Miami) — launched as donor channels for state-attributed giving. Parent Feed America remains primary recipient for max-impact gifts.

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2025-Q2 · AI integrations

MCP server + OpenAPI launched

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server with 7 tools went live for Anthropic AI client integration. OpenAPI 3.0 spec published for OpenAI Custom GPTs / Perplexity Actions.

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2025-Q3 · 100K listings

Crossed 100K verified locations

Total active resources crossed 100,000. Expanded to all 50 states + DC + Puerto Rico + US territories.

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2025-Q4 · Spanish parity

Spanish atlas + glossary + calendar shipped

Spanish editorial set launched at /es/atlas, /es/glossary, /es/calendar, /es/disasters/. Bilingual LLM-search detection + reciprocal hreflang chains.

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2026-Q1 · Verified Badge program

Verified Badge SVG embed for claimed pantries

Per-pantry SVG badge launched at /badge/.svg. Yelp Sticker / GuideStar Seal playbook applied to food-help: every claim → free embeddable trust badge → backlink + brand impression on partner pantry sites.

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2026-Q1 · Per-state expansion

51 per-state pages live: atlas + press + disasters

Comprehensive per-state coverage: /atlas/, /press/, /disasters/, /food-help/, /apply-snap/, /apply-wic/, /es/atlas/, /es/disasters/. ~200 SSR surfaces.

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2026-Q2 · Partner-verified outreach

Pantry-claim outreach campaign tooling

CSV generator + email enrichment scraper + deactivate script shipped. Outreach pipeline ready for 1000+ pantry-operator outreach campaigns.

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2026-04-29 · Today

327,476 verified locations · 516 partner-verified

Live counts: 196,635 food resources + 130,841 SNAP retailers · 516 pantries directly maintained by their operators · 83 documented OpenAPI endpoints · all 9 brand rules pass.

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Next · Roadmap

Pantry-claim welcome email + per-county atlas + state-grant pages

Active development: pantry-operator welcome email automation (when an operator claims, send a welcome email with badge + dashboard URLs), per-county atlas extension for journalist county-level lookups, foundation-officer state-grant pipeline pages.

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How this timeline is updated

Each major shipped feature, federal-data integration, content surface, or partnership goes here. The "Today" entry pulls live D1 counts on every page load. The "Roadmap" entry is what we're actively building.

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Last updated: 2026-04-29 · Live counts pull from D1 on every page load.