About Us

Each day there are thousands of people in our community who wake up hungry and have no means to satisfy this basic human need. Some have lost their jobs. Some hold two jobs. The challenges of daily survival for these individuals and their families are daunting and don't simply disappear. We are the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. We believe that hunger is unacceptable, and we are doing something about it. It's called food rescue. We've been doing it since 1989. We know we make a difference. We know it makes good sense.

Mission

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle pioneers innovative, transformative solutions designed to end hunger in our community.

History

In 1989 two women, Jill Staton Bullard and Maxine Solomon, watched as good food was thrown into trashcans because "breakfast was over" at a fast food restaurant. They realized that restaurants and grocery stores all over the city were discarding foodstuffs that were close to their expiration time or date, but which were still edible and nutritious. They decided to do something to rescue good food before it was dumped. They founded and incorporated as a North Carolina non-profit in November 1989 and became an IRS recognized 501c3 in 1992. They believed then as we all believe now that good food should be feeding people not filling landfills, particularly when our landfill space is limited and finite.

Every year we are able to rescue more nourishing food. In 1989, we recovered just 750 pounds of food from 3 food donors. In the calendar year 2003, before moving into our new building, we recovered 4.2 million pounds of food from over 220 food donors. We will end 2009 recovering 6.2 million pounds of food and project to recover 6.7 million in 2011.

Our Creed

We are volunteers of all faiths dedicated to helping people from all walks of life. We will not discriminate in our service nor will we judge the needs of others. We will remember always to treat each person we meet with dignity and with respect, whether donor, recipient, or clients of an agency we are serving. The right of human dignity is a right that must be respected at all times.

Our Policy

The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle actively supports the advocacy efforts of Feeding America, and Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). Our calling is to recover good food that would otherwise go to waste and get it to hungry people. By these efforts we can help people from being hungry today. But we are very aware that systemic changes need to be made if there is going to be an end to hunger in our county, our country or in the world. We encourage everyone who cares about the issues of hunger to follow legislative actions that will help or hurt the plight of the poor in our communities.

Support and Recognition

The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s efforts are sustained by broad community support by volunteers donating over 38,000 hours each year and over 220 food donors contributing nearly 6 million pounds of food annually. The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has received many awards and recognitions over the years including articles in Southern Living, Franklin Covey’s PRIORITIES Magazine and Prentice Hall’s 2001 9th grade Civics textbook.