Food Bank

Who We Are

Northshore Food Bank is truly a community food bank. Supported by the generosity of businesses, civic organizations, and individuals, the food bank serves the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. Northshore Food Bank serves the Northshore and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Northshore Food Bank Resale Shop offers clothing, household items, furniture and many other great items at greatly reduced rates. Proceeds help support the operations of the food bank.

There are many volunteer opportunities available at Northshore Food Bank. We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds to come share their time and talents with us to help ensure our continued success in providing for those in need. If you are interested in volunteering for any of these programs, click here.

What We Do

Northshore Food Bank provides food assistance to more than 300 individuals and families each week who live at or below the 130% federal poverty guidelines and have found themselves in need within our community. After qualifying for assistance, an individual can receive a minimum of 40 lbs. of food once each month and families can receive a minimum of 70 lbs. of food each month. Depending on donations, recipients may also receive what we call a “lagniappe” box. A lagniappe box may be filled with breads, pastries, dairy products, fresh produce, or frozen foods.

The Food Bank is supported by local food drives held by individuals, schools, civic organizations and businesses, as well as monetary donations and Second Harvest donations. You can learn more about hosting a food drive here.

The Food Bank is managed and operated by a handful of employees and hundreds of loyal and dedicated volunteers who serve in various roles such as: sorting, packing and distributing food to recipients; providing pick-ups for food donations; providing office support; and assisting with special events and food drives throughout the year. For more information on volunteer opportunities, click here.

The Food Bank is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm to serve the needs of the community and to accept donations.

Staple Box Food Program
Northshore Food Bank provides registered participants with an average 40 lb supplemental food box filled with nutritional pantry staple food items from 18 food categories. These same items are always included in the Staple Box. In addition, based on donations, participants may also receive a “lagniappe” box filled with items that don’t fit into the Staple Box category.
Feed the Gap
Feed the Gap is a branch of the Staple Box Food program. Recognizing the ALICE population (asset limited, income constrained, employed) who live paycheck to paycheck and in need, but don’t meet eligibility requirements for the traditional program, Feed the Gap raises the eligibility income limit slightly to provide assistance to this population.
Summer Stock Program
The Summer Stock program is designed to serve school-aged participants who are missing their important school meals during the summer months. During each of their regular pick-ups, these children receive their own special backpack filled with kid-friendly food items that are easy-to-open and prepare by themselves at home.
Holiday Meal
During Thanksgiving time, Northshore Food Bank provides to eligible participants during their regular distribution a special holiday food box filled with items needed to prepare a traditional holiday meal at home.
Community Cupboard Mobile Distribution Program
Through collaborations with other local non-profits, Northshore Food Bank has expanded its reach in the community to be able to provide food assistance to individuals and families finding themselves impacted by various hardships. By working with organizations such as COAST, Knights of Columbus, NAMI, Safe Harbor and Family Promise, we are able to serve these communities in need, despite whether or not they have the means to get to our warehouse.
Kids Weekend Food Program
This program provides nutritious food filled bags for low-income students each weekend during the school year, or when home from school due to illness, to supplement the loss of school meals. This program will be active in three Title 1 elementary schools in St Tammany Parish for the 2023-2024 school year.
T2 Nutritional Box
This box is geared towards those living with diabetes and configured with a registered dietician. The T2 box will provide similar shelf stable products with your dietary needs in mind.
Grow to Geaux and Fresh Produce Program
Fresh produce is distributed weekly as part of “lagniappe” provided to program participants. Produce is both from a local farm cooperative and our very own Grow to Geaux Garden.
Therapeutic Food Pantry
This program provides food for low-income cancer patients and their families at two cancer centers—St Tammany Cancer Center, a campus of Ochsner Medical Center, and Slidell Memorial Hospital Cancer Center.
Our History
The Northshore Food Bank was originally founded as the Food Bank Inc. of St. Tammany on May 21, 1984 and was located at 432 N Columbia Street. The idea for a food bank was planted at a meeting of the Ministerial Alliance of Covington by Deacon Skip Graffagnini of St. Peter Catholic Church who later went on to become the director of the food bank in January of 1985.

Nine churches in the ecumenical group took the lead and provided the food in the early weeks of operation. The nine churches involved in establishing the Food Bank were Christ Episcopal Church, Covington Presbyterian, Dove Park Church of God, First Baptist of Covington, First United Methodist, Greater Starlight Baptist, Holy Trinity Lutheran, St. Peter Catholic Church and Shepherd’s Fold Church of God. As the Food Bank grew so did the number of churches involved in the endeavor increasing to 20 and then to 37. The churches took on full responsibility of providing all the food for the Food Bank without receiving any federal, state or municipal funding. Deacon Skip and the Food Bank ran on the philosophy “Whatever we give is, in reality, theirs, which God in His goodness gives to all. We are merely, in justice, sharing the abundance which we have taken for ourselves.” The churches served 40 families per week in the first year of operation and by their first anniversary had 30 trained volunteers.