So What Else & Sharing Excess: An Invaluable Partnership

For the month of February, we tapped our partner, So What Else, a donor and recipient agency of CFR. We asked them to share about their experience getting connected with Sharing Excess, a national non-profit that works as the middleman for food rescue and tackles the logistical concerns involved in running a food rescue organization. 

Read on to hear what Megan from So What Else had to say about their partnership:

“Sharing Excess was founded in 2018 by Evan Ehlers. Ehlers was a Drexel University student who donated his unused meal swipes to people in need. Since then, Sharing Excess has grown to become one of the largest food rescue organizations in Philadelphia. They have also expanded to new cities. Now, Sharing Excess partners with grocery stores, wholesalers, and farmers and delivers the foods to a network of nonprofit organizations, food banks, and community organizations.”

How did your organizations get connected? 

“In December 2023, Sarah from Sharing Excess reached out to Megan for the first time. In the following months, donations from Sharing Excess increased as we started receiving more varieties of dairy products, plantains, pasta sauce and more! Without Sharing Excess, we wouldn’t be where we 

are today because of the volume of donations they provide to us.

Thanks to our partnerships with Sharing Excess and Community Food Rescue, we are able to provide bananas, grapes, chicken broth and much more to food assistance providers in Montgomery County. We are so grateful for the opportunity to connect and provide support to other local Food Assistance Providers.”

Megan reached out to Sarah, the director of distribution at Sharing Excess, to ask about how she found So What Else and what motivated her to reach out. 

“Sharing Excess came across So What Else in December of 2023 when we were researching hunger relief organizations on the East Coast. We had an abundance of honeydew melon loads at the time and needed to find innovative and agile organizations to take a large quantity of the donated food right around the holidays. Creating a partnership with So What Else has been a game-changer for Sharing Excess. We are able to send them multiple loads of donated produce a week, even more than one a day at times! Their work in North Bethesda is truly inspiring and life-changing for the community.”

-Sharing Excess

So What Else shared the impact that these donations have on their own organization as well as one of their partners, AfriThrive. 

“One of the great groups we have connected with through Chowmatch is AfriThrive. AfriThrive started in 2013 as a community resource for a small group of African immigrants in Maryland and the greater Washington DC area who were concerned about their economic situation and the plight of their relatives in Africa. AfriThrive often picks up products like grapes, berries, or bananas from our warehouse. 

Tanya from AfriThrive often expresses gratitude to us when she reaches out saying ‘Thank you, our clients really appreciated the honeydew melons from last week,’ and ‘We are always happy and grateful to get fresh produce from you.’ 

Thank you again to Sharing Excess, Community Food Rescue, and AfriThrive for our continued collaboration to fight food insecurity and reduce food waste!”

We are honored to be partnered with an organization like So What Else that has such a meaningful impact on the community and works with great partners like Sharing Excess and AfriThrive. If you know of any Montgomery County donor businesses that would be interested in joining the CFR network, email foodresources@mannafood.org.