Q: What is Adopt-a-Pantry?
A: Adopt-a-Pantry.org is an online portal that makes it easy to help a food pantry or soup kitchen feed more people in the community.

Most food pantries and soup kitchens are small, faith-based programs run by volunteers, often seniors with limited resources of their own. Through www.adoptapantry.org, these volunteers can fundraise online to buy items needed to run their programs. Items include food, paper goods, cooking utensils and kitchen appliances.

Q: How does Adopt-a-Pantry work?
A: Visitors like you can read the stories behind more than 50 food pantries and soup kitchens in the Philadelphia region. You’ll meet some of the amazing people who run these programs and learn more about what they need to continue their work.
Then, select a food pantry or soup kitchen to support. “Adopt” a pantry with a monthly recurring donation to the program. Or make a one-time contribution.

You’ll receive a thank-you confirmation and receipt by email. Donations are 100 percent tax-deductible.

Q: I’m used to food drives. What if I prefer to donate canned goods instead?
A: Food drives are well-intentioned acts of charity, but they’re inefficient in supporting local food pantries and soup kitchens. Soup kitchens and food pantries buy food at deep discounts from food banks and other sources. Because of these discounts, their purchasing power can be 10 times as much as that of an ordinary consumer.

That means the $3 a well-intentioned donor spends on a box of cereal at the grocery store could buy 10 boxes if she gave that money directly to the food pantry.  

Q: Where does my donation go?
A: Using secure and trusted online technology, the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger administers donations to Adopt-A-Pantry at no cost to participating food pantries and soup kitchens. The credit card merchant, Democracy in Action, charges a fee of 40 cents per transaction plus 3 percent of contributions made with a credit card. 

Q: When does the Adopt-a-Pantry program run?
A:  Adopt-a-Pantry's online portal accepts donations from May through December each year. People interested in supporting a food pantry or soup kitchen can also donate to the Walk+Run Against Hunger, which benefits more than 100 food pantries, soup kitchens and hunger-relief in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey. Walk+Run beneficiaries include most programs that participate in Adopt-a-Pantry.

Additional questions? Please feel free to contact the Coalition Against Hunger.

Learn more about food pantries and soup kitchens in Philadelphia.