About plenty
Last updated: April 29, 2026
plenty is a community-built map of free and low-cost food resources in the United States — food banks, pantries, free fridges, farmers markets, and surplus produce shared by neighbors. Enter a zip code and you see what's nearby in seconds. No ads, no signup, no tracking, no sales pitch. The site is and will remain free for the people who need it.
Why this exists
Existing tools for finding food assistance — phone hotlines, regional 211 systems, sprawling directory sites — work, but they're slow, ad-cluttered, or behind login walls. A 2024 Reddit post asking for "the best low-cost website and hosting options for a food-resource finder" was the immediate spark; the broader truth is that ~33 million Americans live in food-insecure households and the existing software hasn't been kept up with what they actually need: fast, mobile-first, judgment-free, and just works.
Who runs plenty
plenty is built and operated by Val Polyakov, a software engineer based in Chicago, IL. It is not a registered nonprofit — yet — and is currently run as a public-benefit personal project. Cost to operate is intentionally minimal so that funding (or the lack of it) never threatens the site's existence.
Reach me at val@polyakov.me. I read every email. If you operate a food bank or pantry and want to claim or correct a listing, that's the address.
How the data is collected
Listings come from two places:
- Public datasets. plenty seeds its database from openly licensed public data covering food banks, pantries, soup kitchens, and SNAP-authorized farmers markets across all 50 states.
- Community submissions. Anyone with a verified email can submit a listing through /submit. Every submission is reviewed before it appears publicly.
How accuracy is maintained
- Each listing has a "Report this listing" link. Reports go to a moderation queue and we review them daily.
- Listings show a "Last verified" timestamp. Stale entries are surfaced to moderators for re-verification.
- We re-pull public datasets on a regular schedule and merge updates into the existing records.
That said: hours change, pantries close, eligibility rules vary. Always call ahead before traveling to a listing, especially for first-time visits. plenty's Terms of Service spell out the no-warranty caveats.
What plenty does not do
- It does not run ads.
- It does not sell user data, share user data with advertisers, or use tracking pixels.
- It does not charge users.
- It does not process donations to listed organizations.
- It does not claim affiliation with any food bank, pantry, government agency, or charity listed on the site.
How plenty is funded
For now: out of pocket. The operating costs of plenty are tiny (a domain, a small server, transactional email). If you'd like to help keep it running, the footer includes a "help keep this running" link. We're also exploring grants from food-access and civic-tech funders.
For food banks and pantries
If your organization is listed on plenty:
- Email val@polyakov.me to claim, correct, or remove your listing.
- If you'd like to drive more visitors to your services from plenty, plenty welcomes that — there is no fee.
- If your hours change or you are closing, please tell us; we'll update the listing within 24 hours.
For researchers and journalists
plenty's data is openly licensed (where the underlying source allows). Email for a data export or background on the project. Usage analytics (anonymized) are available on request.
For developers
plenty is built on a small, intentional Python + SQLite stack — no heavy frameworks, no SaaS dependencies, no proprietary lock-in. The whole site is designed to cost less than $5/month to run at this scale. If you'd like to fork it or run a regional instance, get in touch.