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.
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.
2024-Q3 · Community partnerships
Plentiful + ampleharvest + Salvation Army imports
Curated nonprofit partner imports added ~30,000 community-operated food pantries to the directory.
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.
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.
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.
2025-Q3 · 100K listings
Crossed 100K verified locations
Total active resources crossed 100,000. Expanded to all 50 states + DC + Puerto Rico + US territories.
2025-Q4 · Spanish parity
Spanish atlas + glossary + calendar shipped
Spanish editorial set launched at /es/atlas, /es/glossary, /es/calendar, /es/disasters/
2026-Q1 · Verified Badge program
Verified Badge SVG embed for claimed pantries
Per-pantry SVG badge launched at /badge/
2026-Q1 · Per-state expansion
51 per-state pages live: atlas + press + disasters
Comprehensive per-state coverage: /atlas/
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.
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to updates
- Atom feed: /api/feed/news.atom (combined: press + disasters + platform)
- Changelog: /changelog (text-form release notes per shipped feature)
- Press releases only: /press/feed.atom + /press/feed.json
- Live operational status: /api/v1/health.json
Related
- Founder page (Sharika Parkes bio + vision letter)
- About Feed America
- Our values (7 principles)
- Governance + 990s
- Platform changelog (developer-side timeline)
Last updated: 2026-04-29 · Live counts pull from D1 on every page load.