No one in this town should go to bed hungry.
Commontable rescues good food before it's thrown away and turns it into meals, pantries, and a place at the table — for the 1 in 9 of our neighbors who don't have enough.
2.8M meals served · 1.4M lbs of food rescued in 2025
Why it matters
The problem was never a shortage of food.
It's a shortage of getting it to the right table.
Every day, our county throws away enough good food to feed every hungry neighbor twice over. Grocers toss what won't sell by Friday. Farms leave crops in the field. Restaurants scrape full trays into the bin. None of it is spoiled — it's just inconvenient.
Meanwhile, a parent two miles away is skipping dinner so their kids can eat. Hunger here isn't a supply problem; it's a logistics problem. Commontable exists to close that gap — to move good food the short distance from "wasted" to "dinner."
One in nine people in our county don't reliably know where the next meal comes from.
Sent to county landfills every year — still good, just past a sell-by date or a shift change.
Children on free school lunch with no summer meal program within reach when cafeterias close.
What we do
Five programs, one short trip from waste to plate.
Each one moves food a little further down the line — out of a dumpster, onto a shelf, into a hot meal, to a kid in July.
Food rescue
Daily pickups from 240 grocers, farms, and restaurants — before good food becomes waste.
Community pantries
Twelve neighborhood pantries where anyone can shop with dignity — no paperwork, no questions.
Hot-meal sites
Free, sit-down dinners six nights a week at churches, schools, and shelters across town.
Summer kids' meals
Breakfast and lunch all summer, at parks and libraries, for when school cafeterias close.
The mobile market
A grocery store on wheels reaching four neighborhoods with no supermarket of their own.
All of it runs on donors.
There's no government contract behind these trucks. Neighbors fund them.
Fund a program →Impact
A year, counted in plates.
Across pantries, meal sites, and summer programs in 2025.
Diverted from landfills onto pantry shelves and dinner tables.
Households who shopped a Commontable pantry this year.
Grocers, farms, and restaurants donating surplus daily.
Where your money goes
Fiscal year 2025, independently audited.
- Food & meal programs91%
- Fundraising5%
- Administration4%
Meals served per year
2016 → 2025, as demand and food rescue both grew.
A neighborhood story
The Thursday the grocery store came to Eastside.
The nearest supermarket to the Okafor family is a 40-minute bus ride, each way, with three kids and the week's groceries. So for two years, Daniel Okafor did what a lot of Eastside parents do: he shopped the corner store, paid more for less, and made it stretch.
Then Commontable's mobile market — a converted box truck stocked like a small produce aisle — started parking on their block every Thursday at four. Theresa Lindqvist, a retired teacher who's volunteered the route since it launched, knows the regulars by name and saves the good tomatoes.
"It's not charity, the way they run it," Daniel says. "It's a store. My kids pick the apples. That matters more than people think."
"I used to plan my whole week around one bus trip. Now Thursday is just — Thursday."
Donate
Your gift, measured in meals.
Because we rescue food instead of buying it, a dollar here goes a long way. Pick a gift — we'll tell you exactly how far.
- $25
- covers 75 rescued meals — produce, protein, and pantry staples.
- $50
- stocks a full week of groceries for a family of four.
- $100
- feeds one child every day of the summer break.
Give today
SecureTax-deductible · cancel a monthly gift anytime · no fees taken from your gift
Fall Pantry Drive · 16,408 donors so far
Ways to give
More ways to set the table.
The Standing Table
A monthly gift is the dependable budget our trucks, fridges, and pantries actually run on.
Start monthly →Employer matching
Many employers match gifts to hunger-relief nonprofits. Two minutes can double your meals.
Check your employer →Legacy giving
Name Commontable in your will and keep your neighborhood fed for decades to come.
Plan a gift →Donate food
Run a grocer, farm, or restaurant? Become a rescue partner — we'll handle pickup and logistics.
Partner with us →Volunteer a shift
Drive a route, sort a pantry, serve a supper. Shifts run mornings, evenings, and weekends.
Find a shift →Transparency
Where your money goes, in the open.
Commontable is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and a member of the Feeding America network. Our finances are independently audited every year, and the full record is public.
EIN 83-2914408
Stocked by grocers, foundations, and 24,408 neighbors & donors
FAQ
Questions donors ask.
How can one dollar provide so many meals?
Because we rescue food rather than buy it. The food itself is donated by grocers, farms, and restaurants — your dollar pays for the trucks, fuel, refrigeration, and staff that move it. That leverage is how $25 turns into 75 meals: you're funding the logistics, not the groceries.
Where does the food come from — is it safe?
It comes from 240 grocers, farms, and restaurants — surplus that's perfectly good but won't sell in time. Every item is inspected on intake, temperature-logged in our cold chain, and handled by staff certified in food safety. We follow the same standards as a commercial kitchen, and nothing past safe use ever leaves our doors.
Can I volunteer instead of donating?
Absolutely — volunteers run our pantries, drive rescue routes, and serve hot meals, and we'd welcome you. Shifts are as short as two hours. Many supporters do both: volunteer for a morning, then set up a small monthly gift to cover the fuel for the route they drove.
Do you serve my neighborhood?
We run twelve pantries, six hot-meal sites, and a four-stop mobile market across the county — and we publish the full schedule with addresses and hours. If there's a gap near you, tell us: new sites open where neighbors and volunteers ask for them.
Is my gift tax-deductible?
Yes. Commontable is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 83-2914408), so gifts are fully tax-deductible in the U.S. to the extent allowed by law. A receipt lands in your inbox immediately, and we send a year-end summary every January.
Be the reason there's a plate
set for everyone.
The food is already here. Your gift is what carries it the last mile — to a pantry shelf, a hot-meal line, a kid's summer.