Food Rescue Bank

The SWE Food Rescue Bank (formerly the SWE Emergency Hunger Relief Program) was launched in March of 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the specific challenges presented to youth programming recipients. In the years since, the program has scaled up considerably, becoming a permanent fixture within the So What Else operation irrespective of the SWE youth work, and locations now established across Montgomery County, Baltimore, DC, Frederick County, PG County and beyond.

Today the SWE Food Rescue Bank offers innovative food access solutions for low-income children and families, recovering 300,000 pounds of food every week, and redistributing it through dozens of mobile food distributions, hundreds of local partnerships, and thousands of home deliveries, in addition to operating one of the largest, most robust food pantries in the state of Maryland.

In doing so, SWE is able to take a dynamic, accessible approach to addressing the needs of clients, regardless of their ability, location, or circumstances by meeting them wherever they’re at. Since 2020 the program has gone from serving 3,600 to 482,000 individuals per year, making SWE a regional leader in food access solutions.