Organization gives excess restaurant food to those in need during COVID-19

FOX 29's Bill Anderson has the story.

PHILADELPHIA - Sometimes the modest ideas are forced to grow during extraordinary circumstances. That is what happened to Evan Ehlers and his non-profit business Shared Excess.

Evan started with an idea to make sure that students didn’t waste their excess food on their meal plans but that quickly expanded. Now, as restaurants are forced to close due to COVID-19, his organization has dramatically expanded and are helped to make sure potentially wasted food gets into the hands of those who find themselves in need as a result of the coronavirus.

“In the past year and a half, we’ve delivered a little over two hundred and twenty five thousand pounds of food,” Evan explained, “In the past 48 hours alone, we’ve delivered over ten thousand pounds of food.”

FOX 29’s Bill Anderson talked to Evan more than a year ago where he was a student with a vision to make sure food from meal plans wasn’t wasted. Now, because of the obviously unforeseen circumstances, things have changed.

“We just got over 600 pounds of fresh produce, completely edible. It’s freshly prepared but since this location will be closed, they won’t be able to serve it to customers," he said.

This kind of day wasn’t unusual for Evan lately. He mentioned how many of the biggest restaurants in our area are helping his many partners to get food into the hands of the people wondering where their next meal may be coming from.

“We’re actually collaborating with a lot of different organizations in Philadelphia that are also focusing on this work. It’s been amazing seeing everyone come together and really be all in to work and help the community that we all love so much," Evan explained. ”It’s clear that this is a difficult time for all and much of what we are seeing on a daily basis is disruptive or discouraging."

In the midst of all this, we have to remember that we are all capable and we can still do our best when we take care of each other. Getting through this together ⁠— for goodness sake.