Who We Are

Our Mission

To eliminate food insecurity in Greenville County by ensuring no good food goes to waste.

Our Vision

Rescuing surplus food and redistributing it free of charge to partner agencies

who reduce hunger in Greenville County.

Our Future

Information Driven Change

For over 30 years, Loaves & Fishes has served Greenville County by rescuing surplus food and redirecting it free of charge to our partner agencies for redistribution to our neighbors experiencing food insecurity. Our service to the community has grown organically for decades. When new food donors joined our efforts, we added as many partner agencies as we could. Through those years our Board has often asked “Are we doing all that we can?” With little data available regarding the realities of food insecurity in our neighborhoods, answering that question proved to be difficult until now. In the Fall of 2020, LiveWell Greenville’s Food Security Coalition commissioned a food insecurity index to predict which census tracts in the county are most vulnerable to food insecurity based on five risk factors. This information allows us to see which communities have been identified as most vulnerable and overlay it with our current service map. Finally, the gaps have been revealed.

Five Communities in Five Years

In 2023, Loaves & Fishes put into motion the most comprehensive strategic plan in the organization’s history. The plan includes strategies to use the food insecurity index to identify five underserved communities and thoughtfully expand our services in those areas over the next five years.

By the end of 2027, we intend to increase our impact by at least 33%.

We currently partner with over 107 agencies. They include:

Single meal providers, such as soup kitchens and breakfast programs

Nonprofit child care and after school/summer programs

Shelters and group homes

Senior programs

Community centers

Low income housing for seniors and disabled citizens

Therapeutic programs supporting special populations

Our Story

Sam-Hunt

Loaves & Fishes was founded in Greenville in 1991. Local banker Sam Hunt was traveling in New York City in 1990 where he witnessed food rescue for the first time. He watched City Harvest, one of the first food rescues in the US, rescue leftover food from the event he was attending. When he asked, he was told that they would deliver it to near-by hungry people. What a novel solution! Knowing that hunger was a problem in Greenville too–he got to work. Sam recognized that a significant amount of high quality perishable food was also being discarded in Greenville, just like in New York City. To move surplus food to feed the hungry, he mobilized dozens of family and friends, effectively founding Loaves & Fishes as a 100% volunteer-run agency in the process.

In 1991 Hunt and his volunteers rescued a modest 25,000 pounds of food. With 4 refrigerated trucks, Loaves & Fishes rescued nearly 2.5 million pounds of food in 2021, a record year– but not much has changed. We still believe that food is dignity and that everyone deserves it. Rescuing food is who we are, and all we do. Sharing isn’t just a character trait we teach children–its a verb that inspires us to ensure no good food goes to waste in Greenville, 7 days a week.

We have 107 partners, many of which are in places of worship, though L&F is not religiously affiliated. As a 501 (c) 3, we donate surplus food to secular groups, nonprofit partners, and religious partners of all kinds. We are constantly expanding our network to include more and more of Greenville County and aim to eliminate hunger and food insecurity altogether.

Our Team

Tessa May
Executive Director
Email Tessa

Israel Greene
Rescue Driver

Nathaniel McCrary
Director of Operations
Email Nathaniel

Demarcus Vernon
Rescue Driver

Jessica Nihiser
Volunteer Coordinator
Email Jessica

Naomi Horne
Director of Philanthropy
Email Naomi

Andy Fadden
Rescue Driver

Our Board

Officers

Alex Vitou, Chair
Dodge Industrial, Inc.

Kathryn Burke,  Vice Chair

Southern First Bank

Jesse Hansford, Treasurer
Professional Planning & Wealth

Members

Anthony Quartararo,  Attorney

Marian L. Bowers, United Community Bank

Carolyn Dickerson, Coordinator
Bibleway Full Gospel Missionary Baptist Church

Rachel Hunt, Hope Streams Counseling, LLC

Blake Brookshire, Roger C. Peace Inpatient Rehabilitation

Carmen Ogles, Bon Secours Health System

Zandr Tesolowski, Elliott Davis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members Emeritus

Carol Ann Bell, Community Volunteer

Will Hodge, Pinnacle Financial Partners

Ana Davis, Godshall Staffing

Jon Good, NAI Earle Furman

Beverly Henderson, Community Volunteer

Brad Hughes, Allstate

Terrie Long, Greenville Health System

Bob Munnich, Larkin’s on the River & Grill Marks

Tyson Smoak, Pintail Capital

Chef Patrick Wagner, Culinary Institute of the Carolinas

Marsha Woods, United Community Bank

Jake Cluverius, Merrill Lynch

John Meachum, Dixon Hughes Goodman

Marilyn Messer, Senior Vice President of Human Resources

Financial Transparency

We feel that part of genuine service to the community is being open about our finances. Learn how we allocate our funds in the document to the right.