History of Food Banking

The concept of food banking began in the late 1960's in Phoenix, Arizona, when the founders decided to set up a warehouse to store donated food products for a local soup kitchen. In the early 1970's, various other cities had started the concept of a warehouse to store products for distribution to one or more food pantries or soup kitchens. In 1976, the federal government provided a grant to the Phoenix enterprise to assist in developing food banks throughout the nation. The impetus for growth had been increased by the passage of the 1976 Tax Reform Act, which made it more financially advantageous for companies to donate their food products.

By 1979, this federally funded effort had expanded to include the solicitation of food donations - not simply the storage of products - and this effort was incorporated as "America's Second Harvest." This organization became the clearinghouse for large donations from national corporations, and national standards for storage capacity, quality control and management were established.

America's Second Harvest led the challenge to salvage food products that were going to waste in America and to recycle those foods instead to food banks and to feed the hungry. Prior to that time, thousands upon thousands of pounds of foods, still quite useable, were going to landfills.

By 1982, the federal funding of the initiative was discontinued, but America's Second Harvest continued its efforts to pursue alternative sources of financial support. In 1984, the national office of America's Second Harvest was established in Chicago, and the movement grew in terms of the numbers of states and cities with a food bank and the amount of food being donated.

In 1999, the name of the organization was changed officially to America's Second Harvest with a new focus on ending hunger in America. In 2000, America's Second Harvest merged with Foodchain, the nation's largest food rescue organization.

Today, America's Second Harvest is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization addressing domestic hunger and annually distributing more than 2 billion pounds of food to the national network of over 200 affiliated food banks.