Sea Share's coordination has made seafood a major source of protein for food banks

Interview: Seashare - Fish Radio (10-16-09)

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] October 16, 2009 Sea Share a leader in hunger relief

Laws require that fish taken as bycatch during target fisheries must be tossed overboard. Fifteen years ago a ''bycatch to food banks'' program was launched as a way to divert all the discarded seafood by Bering Sea boats to hunger relief programs. The program has grown to become one of the largest sources of protein donations in the U.S.

''Bycatch was all we did in 1994-1995, but now it's less than five percent of our total volume every year.''

Jim Harmon is director of Sea Share, which so far has turned 26 million pounds of donated seafood into 130 million meals for food banks, and won four national awards. Harmon says now Sea Share gets more donations of first run products, such as frozen pollock blocks, canned salmon, even shrimp and mussels.

''What we can do is we can take products that aren't ready for food banks and we can bring in other donations of services and cold storage and freight and combine those donations to come up with a finished product that no one organization can do or sustain. So that's our niche.''

Harmon says big seafood companies collaborate with their suppliers and other connections to maintain the program --

''It also becomes self sustaining that way - when you have four companies working tougher on a donation project they tend to keep each other involved and keep things going so that year after year those things evolve and keep generating big donations to food banks.''

American Seafoods Group, for example, reached a 10 million meal milestone this month. Harmon says Sea Share has expanded nationwide to include, for example, catfish donations in the south, and minced lobster in New England.

Food banks say demand is up around 30% nationwide, and good protein is the toughest to get -

''But protein has suffered - it's something they can never get enough of and when we supply it, it's the first thing to leave. So what we do is kind of the top tier of items that are needed and wanted by the food banks.''

Another Sea Share plus, Harmon says - it builds more acceptance for seafood.

''The people who go to food banks aren't the chronically homeless that people think about. It's people who are underemployed, not unemployed - people who can't make it through the entire month. Those are the same people who will be shopping at supermarkets and might end up buying our products they saw originally at the food bank shelves.''

American Seafoods Reaches 10 Million Meals

American Seafoods has been a leading donor to SeaShare since our inception 15 years ago. Their donations have included pollock, cod, and pacific whiting; as well as the breading and processing to turn these fish into finished products. Their boats have participated in our NMFS' sponsored bycatch-retention program - salvaging tons of salmon that would otherwise be thrown overboard. A subsidiary of Amerian Seafoods has made truckloads of breaded catfish nuggets available to us at a greatly reduced cost. All of these products have been extremely popular with our distribution partners at Feeding America, the nation's largest food bank network.

This summer alone, American Seafoods Group donated over 1 million meals of breaded, frozen pollock portions. SeaShare recognizes American Seafoods Group as the first seafood company to reach the benchmark of 10 million donated meals. We are proud to help seafood leaders like American Seafoods maximize their philanthropy. Presentation of the award is scheduled for the annual meeting of the Global Aquaculture Alliance in Seattle, at the end of October.

Thank you and congratulations American Seafoods Group!

Holiday Preparations with Global Aquaculture Alliance

                                        
If you or your company is considering sending out holiday cards, newsletters or calendars please consider adding SeaShare 's message within your document. (See example below) We know it may seem early, but planning time is upon us.

Global Aquaculture Alliance is our first 'Holiday Partner' this year. They have agreed to add the message below to the inside left of their holiday card, indicating their support of SeaShare's efforts to provide high protein seafood to food banks in America to combat hunger and poor nutrition. Why not add this message to your company holiday cards, newsletters and calendars? SeaShare can send you the .pdf file and you can tailor it to fit your size requirements. If you need to modify the message to personalize it to your personal or company cards, we can do that also. Perhaps you would want to encourage others to match your donations for the year, albeit product or dollars?

This is not just for businesses. Individuals can add this message to their cards as well. You could print the message on labels to affix to your cards. Just contact us for the file.

Some companies have employee-matched giving programs during the holidays. Please let us know if we can help you set something up. Thanks for helping us provide nutritious seafood to hungry Americans.

Join us in supporting SeaShare, the seafood industry's answer to hunger in America. SeaShare provides high protein, healthy seafood to food banks nationwide to not just feed people, but to feed them well.