Founded
over 25 years ago by Tom Ferraro, Foodlink has grown to serve a
10 county area in the Genesee Valley and Finger Lakes Region of
Upstate New York. As a member of America’s Second Harvest,
Foodlink obtains and redistributes over 6 million pounds of food
annually to a network of over 550 programs.
As
the foodbank for these regions, Foodlink works with area food retailers,
manufacturers and wholesalers to acquire, sort, store and redistribute
food to our member charity programs – especially soup kitchens,
shelters and emergency food pantries. In addition, Foodlink also provides
food to hundreds of non-emergency programs like group homes, day cares,
senior centers and camps. Our goal is to help programs save vital
dollars on their food budget. These savings can then be redirected
to other programs that help meet the emotional, physical and spiritual
needs of their clients.
History of Foodlink
Foodlink has a 25-year history of feeding hungry people in the Greater Rochester area. Foodlink was founded in 1976 by its current Executive Director Tom Ferraro while he was working at Action for a Better Community and received funding as a Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP).
While making a community-wide appeal for food to support the growing number of emergency food pantries in the area, Tom received a call from the Thomas English Muffins factory to come and pick up what he needed. The next morning Tom drove to the warehouse to discover that his station wagon was not going to fit the tractor-trailer loads of product that awaited him! And thus in 1978 the Genesee Valley Regional Food Clearinghouse, later the Genesee Valley Foodbank, became an independent entity with the mission to rescue and redistribute food from manufacturers and retailers to human service organizations. In 1992 the Genesee Valley Foodbank changed is name to Foodlink.
Today, the foodbank serves over 550 human service programs in a ten-county service area – especially soup kitchens, shelters and food pantries. As one member of the national association of 213 foodbanks, America’s Second Harvest, Foodlink has distributed over 100 million pounds of food during its tenure that translates into $75 million worth of food in the 1990’s alone.
Foodlink • 936
Exchange Street • Rochester, NY 14608 • P:
(585) 328-3380 • F: (585) 328-9951
