A WholeFam Research Project
The Nourishment Directory
A free, nationwide map of where a household can get or give free food — built one state at a time, starting where the need is deepest.
This page is for the organizations doing this work, the households looking for help, and anyone who wants to understand what we're building and why.
Why This Project Exists
Help exists in every county. The people who need it can't always find it.
households were food insecure in 2024
people, including 7.3M children
states + D.C. saw significant increases
states improved
About one in seven American households — 18.3 million of them, roughly 48 million people, including 7.3 million children — was food insecure at some point in 2024: uncertain of having, or unable to get, enough food because there wasn't enough money or other resources. Between 2019–21 and 2022–24, 28 states and the District of Columbia saw statistically significant increases. Not one state improved. (Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Household Food Security in the United States in 2024.)
At the same time, in every single county in America, someone is already giving food away — food banks, free food gardens, gleaning groups, community fridges, church and school pantries, free-meal tables. The problem is rarely that help doesn't exist. The problem is that help and the people who need it can't see each other. Our work is to close that distance.
What We Are Building
Three things, one purpose
The Directory
A free, searchable, nationwide database of organizations where a household can get or give free food — food banks, free food gardens, free gardening resources, gleaning and community meals — with tags and filters that work at household level, built state by state in order of need.
State Research Reports
One deep, factual research report per state — a museum-style walkthrough of what the numbers actually say, county by county, and what's already being done about it — published free at wholefam.org/research/food-security. Arkansas is first (No. 1 of 51). Every number carries its source.
Trailguides
Step-by-step paths for food self-sufficiency at household level — meet a household in any situation, from "I need food this week" to "I want to grow more of what we eat this year" — built through our seven-stage research method: listen to real situations, gather the best of what humans have learned across cultures and traditions, synthesize it into doable steps, pass a safety review, have two experts review it, field-test with real households, then publish and keep improving.
The Mission Underneath
What This Serves
Our whole purpose, in every project: to bridge people to the next right step, based on the best of what we know, for their specific situation. We rigorously research what humans have learned — and bring it into practical daily use — in a way that uplifts human nourishment at every level. Here, that purpose is literal: more people eating well, for free, starting where the need is deepest. We take no other position and we charge nothing for any of it.
Where soil and growing are discussed across this project, we are straightforward that we implement the approach and logic of the documentary Kiss the Ground (2020) — healthy soil is a living system, and how a household treats the ground it grows in decides how much freedom grows from it.
Kiss the Ground (2020), dir. Rebecca & Ryland Tickell — official trailer
For Organizations
If Your Organization Feeds People, This Page Is For You
Here is exactly how we treat you: If your organization provides free food or free food-growing resources as part or all of its mission, we research you from public sources, list you accurately, and label the listing "public-source listing" — nothing more. We never charge for a listing, we never sell your data, and we never present you as a partner unless you say so. When your state's report publishes, you can:
Check your listing
Every fact traceable to a public source, with a simple way to correct anything.
Claim your listing
Take control of the profile, add what you want the community to know: hours, service areas, what you need most.
Tell us what you actually need
Our research asks three questions: what information you'd like the community to have, what help you need most, and what you'd share with similar organizations if someone connected you. Your answers steer where this project goes next.
Share the directory freely
Everything we publish is free to link, share, and reuse. This layer exists to connect help to need, not to capture either.
Where We Are Right Now
The project status
National research presentation published: wholefam.org/research/food-security — the full USDA picture, all 50 states + D.C. ranked.
State Report No. 1 — Arkansas (highest household food insecurity, 19.4%): published.
In the research queue, in order of need: Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia (the Wave 1 ten), then onward down the ranking.
Directory database: org listings are being compiled state by state as each report is researched.
Every organization we list is researched from at least three public sources, values-checked, and labeled; invitations and profile access go out only with each organization's interest — nothing is sent on your behalf without your say-so.
How the Research Works
Our method, in plain words
Our method is the same for every state: government and Feeding America data first, verified against two independent sources for every headline number; the free-food landscape mapped from public records with public contacts only — anything we can't verify is marked unverified, not guessed; and every report ends in the same place: what a household in that state can actually do this week, this season, this year. Full methodology is published with the reports.
WholeFam is operated by JAIMA LLC dba Val Wise. Data sources: USDA Economic Research Service (ERR-358, 2026); Feeding America Map the Meal Gap. Compiled and verified September 2026. Questions: info@wholefam.org.