What is St. Johns Food Share?

St. Johns Food Share is a free, open-door food sharing community that is powered entirely by volunteers. During open shopping hours, everyone is welcome to select free food from our location at 8100 N. Lombard Street, in North Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood. Our weekly shopping hours are: 

Monday: 10 am – 4 pm 

Wednesday: 10 am – 12 pm 

Friday: 10 am – 4 pm

How It Works

St. Johns Food Share is set up like a miniature grocery store. Guests are welcome to choose their own food from our rotating selection of produce, ready-to-go meals, and pantry staples. While all of our food is offered completely for free, we ask that guests follow posted limits on certain items, so we are able to share with everyone. St. Johns Food Share provides food for 6,500 people each month.

Where Does the Food Come From?

In 2025, St. Johns Food Share gave over one million pounds of free food to our community. This food comes from a variety of sources, including:

      • Oregon Food Bank — a state-wide organization that provides food to over 1,000 partner agencies, including St. Johns Food Share.  
      • The Fresh Alliance program — which diverts excess food from grocery stores that would otherwise go to landfills.
      • Community Partners — who are individual farms, bakeries, and restaurants that make regular donations of their excess food. Community Partners of St. Johns Food Share include Marsee Baking, Sparrow Bakery, and Thousand Furrows Farm. 
      • Individual donors from our community — who are welcome to drop off food during open shopping hours, with no appointment.

All food is hand-inspected for freshness and quality by volunteers before it is made available on our shelves.

 

Our History

Our organization began in 1988, and was originally known as Golden Harvesters. We began operating out of the home garage of our founder, Darlene Hopkins. In 2005, we became St. Johns Food Share, and moved to our current location at 8100 N. Lombard St.

 

St. Johns Food Share previously charged a small monthly membership. This program has ended: all access and all food is now completely free.

 

Get Involved

We always welcome interested volunteers to join our team of over 100 active volunteers, with flexible opportunities available seven days a week. Learn how to join at our Volunteer Page. 

 

Our services run thanks to generous financial donations from our community. Learn how to make a monthly or one-time donation at our Donate Page. 

 

Food donations from individuals are always welcomed during our open shopping hours.