The communities we sponsor are chosen for the most part based on U.S. Census Department poverty statistics.  We also research the specific needs of the community through conversations with local school officials, food pantry directors, church leaders, or other outreach workers who have detailed knowledge of the area.

Local outreach workers are the ones who identify families for sponsorship; families must live under the U.S. poverty line** (see below) and/or be eligible for food stamps (SNAP) or WIC, or children in the family must be eligible to receive free or reduced lunch in their local public school.  Family-to-Family relies on our outreach partners for specific knowledge of the needs of families in their communities.  A family’s eligibility is partly determined by a detailed initial questionnaire, supplied by Family-to-Family to our community outreach partners, and we require each applicant family to supply a food stamp id card or other documentation of income.

Your monthly donation helps Family-to-Family provide desperately needed food to families registered with our organization.  Working with our partners on the ground [e.g., Feeding America food banks, Walmart, Kmart, IGA, Shoprite (see #11 below for a complete list)], F-to-F is able to provide all of our registered families with enough groceries each month to provide an average of 10 meals for their entire family of 4-6 members.

Approximately 96% of your monthly donation supports Family-to-Family’s program costs, outlined above. The remainder of your donation supports F-to-F’s general operating expenses, helping to ensure program accountability and subsidizing research into new communities in need.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about how your monthly donation is used.

We have six family donation programs, and costs for each are slightly different.

Option 1: Individuals (or individual families) that sponsor a family through our online cyber-sponsorship program and who shop for and send “monthly drive items” (non-food basic necessities). Costs: $36.50 online per month for food plus $10-$15 for optional non-food items. Shipping for non-food items varies depending on size and weight, but we estimate on average $7-$10 per month. 
(APPROXIMATE) TOTAL: $55 PER MONTH (or $36.50 per month if you choose not to send optional non-food items).

Option 2: “2 for 1”.  Individual donors or donor families share a sponsorship of a family in need with another donor through our online donation program. Costs: $18.50 online per month for food plus $10-$15 for optional non-food items.  Shipping for non-food items varies depending on size and weight, but we estimate on average $7-$10 every other month.
(APPROXIMATE) TOTAL AVERAGES $40 PER MONTH (or $18.50 per month if you choose not to send optional non-food items).

Option 3: Individuals or families that sponsor a “gap” family in Beverly, Kentucky. The family “shops” at the Red Bird Mission “Gap Pantry”. Costs: automatic monthly donation of $11.

Option 4: Individuals or families that sponsor a Refugee or Refugee family. Refugees receive a monthly gift card to a grocery store near where they live. Cost: automatic monthly donation of either $55 for a full sponsorship or $27.50 to share a sponsorship.

Option 5: Individuals or families that sponsor a Veteran in need. Veterans receive monthly groceries at the supported housing facility where they live. Cost: $36.50 per month for a full sponsorship or $18.50 to share a sponsorship.

Option 6: Individuals or families that sponsor a Holocaust Survivor in need. Survivors receive a monthly gift card to a grocery store near their home. Cost: $55 per month for a full sponsorship or $27.50 per month for a shared sponsorship.

If a sponsored family doesn’t pick up their food and can’t be reached by our community partner for two consecutive months, the food provided with your donation will be given to another family in need in that community.

While it is very generous and kind to donate a larger amount, it creates difficulties in our recipient communities if one family receives a significantly larger amount of food than other families do. So, if you donate more than the requested amount each month, the extra amount will go to our Emergency Food Fund to purchase groceries for families that are between sponsors. However, in the case of very large recipient families (8 people or larger) we do encourage sponsors who are able to consider signing up twice (in essence making two monthly donations) for groceries for “their” family…. or we assign two sponsors to the same family.

Our sponsorship program matches families at a distance (usually families living in different parts of the country) in order to respect the privacy of both sponsoring and sponsored families, so we would not match you with a family in need in your own community. However, if you’re interested in helping local families, you can join our Give Where You Live program and donate a regular basket of groceries to a local food pantry.

Yes. When you sign up online to sponsor a family, you’ll be offered a choice of communities where families in need are currently available. If you would rather let us choose for you, click on “wherever the need is greatest.”

Yes!  We have a 2-for-1 shared sponsorship program, in which two families share a sponsorship of a single family in need. Each donor family donates $18.20 a month online.  Read more.

We purchase discounted food from a variety of partner food banks and grocery stores, depending on the location. Or, in some locations we purchase grocery store gift cards that are distributed to the families.

SPONSOR A FAMILY

• AL, Brookside – gift cards
• AR, Montrose – The Arkansas Foodbank Network
• FL, Orlando – Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
• IL, Pembroke – gift cards
• KY, Beverly – The Red Bird Mission food pantry
• KY, Jenkins (McRoberts) – Whitesburg, KY Walmart
• LA, Lake Providence – Jong’s Market
• MA, Boston – gift cards
• MA, Worcester – Price Rite
• ME, Cherryfield – The Good Shepard Food Bank
• MI, Burton – gift cards
• MI, Flint – gift cards/Food Bank of Eastern Michigan
• MO, Rich Hill – Food Fair
• NM, Gallup – The Community Pantry
• NV, Whitney – Albertsons
• NY, Brooklyn – The Campaign Against Hunger food pantry
• NY, Dobbs Ferry – Stop & Shop gift cards
• NY, Hastings-on-Hudson –  Foodtown gift cards
• NY, Mamaroneck – gift cards
• NY, Staten Island – Shoprite gift cards
• NY, Yonkers – gift cards
• PA, Braddock – gift cards
• TX, Waco – gift cards
• WV, Mingo County – Save-A-Lot gift cards

SPONSOR A REFUGEE

• CA, Los Angeles – Variety of grocery store gift cards
• NY, New York – Foodtown, Key Food, ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Target gift cards
• NY, Syracuse – Tops Friendly Markets gift cards

SPONSOR A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

• CA – San Francisco – Safeway gift cards
• NY, New York – Empire Kosher, Fairway, Key Food, KRM, Moisha’s, Mountain Fruit, ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Target, Whole Foods gift cards

SPONSOR A VETERAN

• NY, Poughkeepsie – Stop & Shop
• NY, White Plains – ShopRite

Family-to-Family strongly encourages communication in the form of letter or email writing between donating and sponsored families.  We believe that communication not only creates community across the miles, but also that it expands the world and creates possibilities for families living in poverty.

At the same time, donating families should understand how difficult the act of writing a letter can be for people living in places where there is widespread illiteracy, a lack of motivation, and in some cases (e.g. The Navajo Nation) a language barrier.  For many of the families we help, writing anything is rarely a part of their home life.  If your sponsored family does not write back to you, do let us know, and we will contact our local community outreach partner to see how they might assist.  However, please do understand the limits living in extreme poverty places on your sponsored family… and know that their need for the food you provide remains great.

The easiest way is to email us at moreinfo@family-to-family.org. We’ll cancel it for you on our end and then you’ll get a confirmation email from PayPal or Stripe (whichever one you used to originally sign up with us) that it’s been cancelled. Or, if you have your own PayPal account and signed up through PayPal, you can go into your account and cancel it from there.