Who We Are

A Dream and a Mission

Loaves & Fishes reduces hunger in Greenville County through rescuing food that would otherwise be wasted and delivering it to partner agencies for distribution to those in need. We serve as a vital conduit through which businesses can contribute to the community in a meaningful way and surplus food can be maximized. Our goal is to eliminate food insecurity among our neighbors by working to ensure no good food goes to waste.

We rescued and delivered over
2.4 MILLION POUNDS
of food in 2021, including:

Our Story

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

Our Board