📖  Sharing Excess Marketing Guidelines

Section 1: Terminology & Messaging

Purpose: This is a messaging reference — not a fact sheet. It defines how we talk about Sharing Excess: the words we use, the frames we apply, and the voice we maintain. For current impact numbers, see [link to live impact dashboard / communications team].

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1.1 Who We Are

Full legal name: Sharing Excess

Entity type: 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization

EIN: 86-2161466

Founded: 2018

Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA

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1.2 Mission & Taglines

Official Mission

To end hunger and reduce food waste by building the most efficient and scalable food rescue network in the world.

One-liner

Using surplus as a solution.

Primary Tagline

Rescuing food & feeding people.

Official Campaign Tagline

Let's Free Food.

Why it works: A double meaning that's core to who we are — we give food out for free, and we're freeing food that's trapped in a cycle of waste. Use in campaigns, community events, social, and anywhere we want energy and movement.

Hero / Manifesto Lines

These are for high-impact moments — decks, campaigns, event openers, video intros:

"There is more than enough food to feed everyone on Earth. The challenge is not supply. It's access and distribution."

"Food shouldn't go to waste. And impact shouldn't be a mystery."

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1.3 Local vs. National Framing

Choose the right frame based on who you're talking to. These aren't mutually exclusive — in many contexts you'll move from one to the other within the same conversation.

Philadelphia / Local Frame

Use when speaking to Philly donors, community members, local media, elected officials, and neighborhood partners.

Lead with roots, then impact:

Sharing Excess is a Philadelphia-based organization, founded right here at Drexel University by a student named Evan who had 50 unused meals in his dining account and two days to use them. He swapped them all, packed his car, and drove around Center City giving food to anyone who needed it. That impulse became a movement.

In Philadelphia, we took the city's largest source of food waste — the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market — and turned it into the largest source of fresh food donations in the city. That's the Sharing Excess model.

Key local proof points to weave in (pull current figures from the comms team):

• Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market (PWPM) — the largest fully enclosed refrigerated produce terminal in the world
• Transformed PWPM from biggest food waste source → biggest fresh food donor source in the city
• Cut PWPM's waste stream by 60%+
• Saved vendors $1M+ in disposal fees; generated $1.5M+ in state tax credits
• Retail partners: Trader Joe's, Wegmans, and 30+ locations
• "Sharehouse" distribution hub in West Philly (5109 Warren St)
• Weekly pop-ups and Free Food Fests across Philadelphia neighborhoods
• Founded at Drexel University

National Frame

Use when speaking to national funders, corporate partners, expansion-city stakeholders, and national media.

Lead with scale, then mission:

Sharing Excess is one of the fastest-growing hunger relief organizations in the country. With four active wholesale rescue operations in Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit, and Chicago — plus a national direct supply network spanning 36+ states — we're rescuing over 100 million pounds of food a year and closing the meal gap in America.

Key national proof points (pull current figures from the comms team):

• 4 major wholesale market operations: Philly, NYC (Hunts Point), Detroit, Chicago
• National Direct Link network: 36+ states, 2,000+ distribution locations
• One of the fastest-growing hunger relief organizations in the country
• On a mission to close the meal gap in America
• Flagship partners: MrBeast/Beast Philanthropy, Misfits Market, DOLE, Fyffes, Marc Lore/Wonder, Pew Charitable Trusts
• Proprietary Food Rescue App — full transparency on every pound rescued

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1.4 Core Programs

Use these names consistently. Capitalize all program names on every reference.

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1.5 Core Vocabulary

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1.6 How We Talk About Impact

We do not hardcode impact numbers into messaging documents because our impact grows constantly. Instead, use the right metrics and framing language — and always pull live figures from the communications team or the Food Rescue App dashboard before publishing.

The Metrics We Use (and How to Frame Them)

Pounds rescued The primary volume metric. Lead with it when talking about scale.

"X pounds of food rescued" / "X million pounds and counting"

Meals made possible The human impact conversion. Use in donor and community contexts.

"Enough to make X meals" / "X meals made possible"

Total retail value Used in corporate partner and funder contexts to quantify the value of donated food.

"$X in retail food value rescued and redistributed"

Emissions / GHG prevented Environmental impact metric. Use in sustainability, ESG, and corporate partner contexts.

"X lbs of emissions prevented" / "X lbs of food kept out of landfills"

People fed / people reached Humanizing stat for broad public audiences.

"Enough food to feed X people" / "X million people reached"

Framing Rules for Impact Language

• Always pair a number with a human or environmental frame — never let a pound count stand alone
• "Rescued and redistributed" is the correct verb pair — not "collected and donated"
• When in doubt, convert to meals: it's the most universally legible unit of impact
• For environmental messaging, lead with GHG/emissions — food waste is the third-largest source of greenhouse gases globally
• Where to find current stats: Food Rescue App dashboard / communications team / annual impact report

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1.7 Language Do's and Don'ts

✅ Use

• "rescue" — our primary verb. Active, accurate, and ownable.
• "surplus" — what the food is before it's rescued
• "redistribute / redistributing" — what we do with it after
• "using surplus as a solution" — core one-liner, works in almost any context
• "the meal gap" — our national mission frame
• "fight food waste and food insecurity at the same time" — the dual mandate; use often
• "fastest-growing" — in national contexts, anchors our scale story
• "bridging the gap between excess and scarcity" — foundational framing
• Language that centers community dignity — people choosing food, partners doing important work

❌ Don't Use

• "food waste" to describe the food we rescue — it's surplus until it hits a landfill. This is especially important when speaking with food vendors and donors: we never want to imply their donations are waste. They're sharing surplus, not discarding garbage.
• "leftover food" — sounds domestic and small; diminishes scale and quality
• "garbage," "trash," "throwaway" — never use to describe rescued food
• "handouts" / "charity food" — implies passivity; our model is active rescue
• "hungry people" / "the hungry" / "the needy" — reductive; use "people experiencing food insecurity" or "communities in need"
• Pity-based language — Sharing Excess is a systems solution, not a charity narrative. Lead with scale, efficiency, and movement.
• Vague impact language — "we're making a difference" is not enough. Always pair claims with data.

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1.8 Tone & Voice

Sharing Excess speaks with:

• Confidence — We are one of the fastest-growing hunger relief orgs in the country. Own that.
• Urgency — The problem is real, solvable, and pressing. Don't soften it.
• Optimism — We believe this is solvable. Hopeful, not dire.
• Directness — Short sentences. Active verbs. No jargon. No filler.
• Authenticity — Real stories and real numbers beat polished copy every time.

Avoid: Passive voice. Savior narratives. Overly formal nonprofit-speak. Anything that puts suffering at the center instead of the solution.

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1.9 Word Choices That Matter

Responsive, not reactive

The nature of food rescue means we never know exactly what food we're going to get. That's not a weakness — it's the model. We are responsive to the food supply and to the industry. "Reactive" implies we're scrambling and off-balance. "Responsive" means we're built for it — our systems, our technology, and our team are specifically designed to meet supply where it is. Always use "responsive."

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1.10 Visual Guidelines

Use when explaining why Sharing Excess — especially to funders, partners, or press.

1. We turned the problem into the solution. The places wasting the most food — wholesale produce markets — are now our biggest source of donations.
2. Technology-first model. The Food Rescue App gives us full visibility on every pound — where it came from, where it went. Impact isn't a mystery.
3. Dual mandate. We fight food waste and food insecurity simultaneously. Most orgs do one.
4. We're infrastructure, not competition. We don't replace food banks — we supply them.
5. Proven and replicable. The Philadelphia model works. We've replicated it in NYC, Detroit, and Chicago. It can go anywhere there's a produce market or retail network.
6. We never buy or sell food. All food is donated. Donations fund transportation and logistics — not purchasing. Every dollar moves food.

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Food rescue photography should reinforce the quality, dignity, and scale of the work. The wrong image can undermine the message even when the words are right.

✅ Show

• Food being actively handled, sorted, and distributed
• Volunteers and staff in motion
• Fresh, abundant produce
• Community members choosing food at pop-ups and events
• The scale of operations: markets, trucks, pallets, volume

❌ Never Show

• Boxes on the ground — implies disorder or low-quality operations
• Bad, spoiled, or visually unappetizing food — unless the content is specifically about food waste (the problem). In food rescue contexts, we only show food worth eating.
• Trash bags near food — insinuates the food is trash. Even if logistically present, keep them out of frame.

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1.11 Key Differentiators

For use in media, donor, and community contexts. Adapt length to the room.

In 2018, Evan Ehlers was a student at Drexel University with 50 meal swipes left in his dining account and two days to use them. Instead of letting them expire, he swapped them all at once, packed his car, and drove around Center City Philadelphia giving food to anyone who needed it. That day changed everything.

What started as one student's instinct became Sharing Excess — now one of the fastest-growing hunger relief organizations in the country, rescuing over 100 million pounds of food a year across 36+ states.

The founding story works because it captures the core logic of Sharing Excess in one image: food that exists, people who need it, and the absurdly simple act of getting one to the other. Use it to open conversations, not close them.

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Next sections: 2 — Audience Profiles | 3 — Frequently Asked Questions