Draft:Sharing Excess

• Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. Seerstephen (talk) 18:24, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

---

Sharing Excess is a non-profit organization founded in 2018 that collects surplus food from farms, grocery stores and wholesalers and redistributes it to communities experiencing food insecurity. As of April 2026, the organization has distributed over 238 million pounds of food and expanded operations across the United States and into Canada and South America. Founded and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the non-profit uses a data and technology supported model that connects surplus food inherent in the supply chain to communities at no cost to them.

History

Sharing Excess was founded in 2018 by Evan Ehlers while he was a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia. By 2019, the student-run organization had partnered with over 40 local groceries and restaurants along with Drexel's dining provider Aramark, enabling them to distribute over 140,000 pounds of food to Philadelphia hunger relief associations.

COVID-19 accelerated the organizations growth in 2020, as sudden business closures created a surge of available perishable surplus food. Visibility from a Philadelphia Inquirer article attracted new volunteers and enabled the non-profit to scale it's operations. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Sharing Excess distributed approximately 8 million pounds of food and through donations, acquired their first storage warehouse. In July 2021, the organization established a permanent food rescue station within the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, giving direct access to the major produce distributors in the Philadelphia region. This new foothold led them to recover over 4.8 million pounds of produce in their first year.

In October 2022, Sharing Excess received national attention and recognition for "Avogeddon," a free giveaway of 380 thousand avocados in partnership with The Farmlink Project.

In 2023, The Pew Charitable Trusts awarded Sharing Excess a $250,000 grant to expand their food rescue and redistribution efforts to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Allowing a increase in food rescue capacity to beyond 20 million pounds annually. That same year, Evan Ehlers and co-founder Victoria Wilson were names to Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Social Impact.

In 2024, a partnership with S. Katzman produde and the Robin Hood Foundation enabled Sharing Excess to expand operations to Hunt's Point market in New York City. With continuously expanding operations and capacity, the organization was distributing over 1 million pounds of food per week.

In 2025, as federal reductions to SNAP and USDA food bank funding took effect, Sharing Excess expanded its operations and launched a public map of free food distribution sites across Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago.