Our Mission

Shire Sharing is a nonprofit comprised of volunteers only; this means that all of your donations go directly to helping families in need. We also stand apart because we deliver meals directly to the doors of Granite Staters who need a little help. This is convenient for people with transportation or mobility issues — but it’s also personal and meaningful, both for the recipient and for the volunteer. Few other nonprofits provide the opportunity to see what really happens to your donations. With Shire Sharing, you see everything from start to finish! Our 2018 wrap-up video shows how we get it all done:

In 2018, we delivered meals to almost 2,000 people in New Hampshire — and over the years we’ve delivered meals to more than 13,000 people across our state. Among the recipients of Shire Sharing’s Thanksgiving baskets are single parents, veterans, elderly people, refugees, and people with disabilities. Shire Sharing personalizes every basket of food, making adjustments for the number of people in a household, special dietary needs and cultural differences. These personalizations also make the best use of funds, helping us avoid wasteful spending.

A typical Shire Sharing Thanksgiving basket includes fresh or canned produce (as appropriate), ingredients for a holiday pie, bread, side dishes, potatoes, and (the best part) a frozen turkey and pan. We make our deliveries during the weekend prior to Thanksgiving so that recipients have enough time to defrost the bird. Additionally, a hand-written card is included in every package, and sometimes, people write back!

In Loving Memory of Kent Wood Bouldin, August 19 1950 - April 25 2011

Shire Sharing began in 2011 after founder Amanda Bouldin's father, Kent Bouldin, passed away due to leukemia. Kent was a furniture designer, a goof ball, an avid traveler and skydiver. During his life in Dallas, Texas, Kent ran his own "Basket Brigade" annually, handing out Thanksgiving meals to families in need. At first, he was inspired to help out just one person during Thanksgiving.

He caught the giving bug and wanted to help more people the following year, and more every year after that. Kent eventually built his project up so that it was feeding hundreds of families per year, and he convinced his friends and coworkers to help him make it all happen by personally delivering every single basket of food to each of the hundreds of recipients’ homes, all in one day.

Kent’s illness was swift. He was diagnosed in February of 2011 and was gone by Easter; he was cheerful throughout the ordeal. He did not know that his final “Basket Brigade” would indeed be the last for him. His project could have died with him — but it lives on here in the Granite State thanks only to donors and volunteers. Although not a single one of Shire Sharing's volunteers have ever met Kent, hundreds of New Hampshire residents have taken up the new tradition of volunteering each Thanksgiving.

Despite so much growth, Shire Sharing has maintained its very personal touch, committed to delivering every single Thanksgiving meal to the home of each recipient, ignoring the “easier” route of having recipients line up in a warehouse and take a number. The result of this commitment has been more than 15,000 face-to-face, meaningful interactions between people of all stripes — just as Kent would have wanted it.