Community Cupboard allows our member agencies to directly refer clients for food assistance.  We provide food and grocery products as well as non-food items such as cleaning products, paper goods and vitamins to their clients without additional intake procedures, assessments, or other duplicative processes in a non-judgmental atmosphere of dignity and service.  More than 650 people from 100 referring agencies shop at Community Cupboard in any given month.

Shoppers reflect the general population served by Community Harvest.  Families with children, underemployed, working poor, older adults and those experiencing serious illnesses.   Clients may shop Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays.

Community Cupboard depends on volunteers to retrieve food from the warehouse and stock the shelves, coolers and freezers continuously each day.  Our member agencies refer clients to Community Cupboard and are then invoiced a "shared handling fee" of $.18 per pound for items selected by their client. The "shared handling fee" is used only to help defray the cost of moving the food (truck fuel, repairs & maintenance, contracted freight fees, etc) and is in no way a charge for the food itself, nor is it applied to personnel expenses (such as wages).

For example:

           Agencies authorize a client to select 100 pounds
           Shared handling fee is only $.18 per pound
           Total cost to the agency is $18.00

This minimal fee translates into a significant savings to our member agencies' budgets. With an increasing number of people requiring food assistance, Community Cupboard makes it possible to help even more individuals and families struggling with hunger.

Community Cupboard also receives funding from the Baade Foundation and
Fort Wayne Health and Education Foundation.