SHARE's Promise
Every time you place an order with SHARE, we remind you of our promise to you. We want you to know that we are committed to your complete satisfaction:
Our goal is to provide quality food at savings of up to 30-50%. The items on the order form are subject to availability and it may be necessary to substitute a like item if supplies run out. If your order is short, damaged or below our standard for quality, or if we make a substitution that you don't like, please report it to your Host Site Coordinator right away. We will either replace the item or refund your money, whichever you prefer.
Where Does SHARE Food Come From?
Every month SHARE purchases wholesome, nutritious food on the national wholesale market, just like a grocery store. SHARE does not distribute donated or outdated food. Our goal is to source high quality products at savings of 30-50% compared to supermarket prices.
Some of our products are name brands that you see in the grocery store. Others are packaged using “private labels”. For instance, we often offer products made by Oscar Mayer and other national brands that are packed under a private label. Some of the products we distribute are originally produced for institutional use (i.e., cafeterias and restaurants).
We shop for produce on the national wholesale market. We do our best to source fruits and vegetables locally during our growing season. At other times, our products come from throughout the Midwest and the country. See below for more on SHARE’s efforts to source locally.
Can I See SHARE’s Products?
Because our unique distribution system is designed to save our members as much money on food as possible, we often purchase food from trusted vendors, sight-unseen. We cannot show you pictures of the products because when our order form is published we often do not have the products in our warehouse yet. Our money-saving model requires us to bring in only enough product to cover the orders that we have received.
If you want to see the quality of the kinds of products that SHARE offers, visit the Food Pictures Pages on our website, visit your local SHARE host site on our next SHARE Day, or place an order. Also feel free to send us an email or call our main office toll-free at 800-548-2124 with any questions about the products on our order form.
What About Processed Foods?
Some SHARE members have dietary concerns that require them to avoid processed foods. In response, we almost always include minimally processed items on our order form. For example, we almost always offer "naked" chicken drums or thighs, which are not processed at all besides being cut up and tray-packed. This chicken is conventionally produced, just like the typical chicken you would buy in a supermarket.
Many of our members also demand that we carry more "convenient" foods. So we do our best to satisfy all of our members’ needs, including convenience foods. There are usually several more processed items on our order form (chicken nuggets, for example). Just like at the grocery store, it is up to our members to pick and choose the foods that work best for their dietary needs.
Does SHARE Distribute Local Food?
Whenever possible, SHARE sources locally. Not only does this save money on shipping (savings we pass along to our members), but it’s good for the environment because it reduces the number of food miles traveled and hence the carbon footprint of our organization.
For example, we almost always distribute Wisconsin-grown potatoes. In the fall we work with a family farm in Sullivan, WI, to source the squash that’s in our holiday dinner packages. We also work with the Badgerland Produce Auction in Montello, WI, to supply produce for our regular Produce Assortments as well as some items in our monthly Certified Organic Produce Assortments. We’re hoping to create more such partnerships with local producers in the future.
Still, many of our produce items come from California or even Latin America--just like in a typical supermarket. The reason for that is mostly because SHARE’s distribution system is too large for most local farmers to supply.
Every month SHARE distributes enough food to feed 20,000 people all on the same day. Most local vegetable famers and meat producers are smaller-scale operations that sell directly to the consumer through farmers’ markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs. It’s difficult for these kinds of local producers to meet SHARE’s high-volume requirements. Another factor is the short Midwestern growing season.
SHARE is an active partner in many regional and local efforts to build a stronger local food system. They include the Farm Fresh Atlas of Southeastern Wisconsin, the Johnson’s Park Health Alliance in Milwaukee, the statewide Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin initiative, the Milwaukee Food Council, and other such efforts throughout our service area.
What About SHARE’s Organic Produce?
Goodness Greenness, a wholesale organic produce distributor based in Chicago, supplies much of the produce in our Organic Produce Assortment. Goodness Greenness does its best to source organic produce locally/regionally, and sometimes those products are included in our monthly Organic Produce Assortment. However, due to the same challenges cited in the previous section, many of our organic produce items come from around the country or around the world—just like they do at many natural food stores and supermarkets.