Meet the Produce Party Crew
They are the Produce Party Crew, often called affectionately, “The Crew.” They make everything run at the Grassroots Grocery Produce Party. Come Saturday, they arrive early, stay late. They are a big key to the success of this critical food security mission.
It’s a quiet Saturday morning in an empty parking lot in the Bronx.
Produce Party Crew members are already at work, starting to pull everything out of our shed. Tables first, laid out in straight lines three abreast. When I arrive, I jump in - laying out gloves and donuts and praying the wind doesn’t whisk them away.
As more and more people arrive, this unassuming parking lot is transformed into a hustle and bustle of activity, bouncing with the 2010s hits blasting from our speaker.
The Crew members spin around the lot keeping everything moving smoothly: Guytri sweeps up lost leaves of spinach, Debra instructs her pit to grab box after box of produce, Tom waves Anne and then Joseph forward to have their cars loaded up, ready to-literally—drive out hunger.
Anne, volunteer, (second from left) and Grassroots Grocers at River Park Towers
“You really felt you could see the impact we were making in our little community.”
Guy taking a pause from setting up
The scene may appear chaotic, but trust, Guy has it under control. She has short, black hair and is always moving. Every week, she finds something new to make things run ever more smoothly.
Her latest project is organizing our shed in the most efficient way possible and she has it down to a tee. Everything has its place and is labeled clearly. When something gets mixed up (as it so often does when many people are pitching in), she is quick to fix the problem.
“I love that kind of stuff. … It's nice being with people around my age or even a little older and younger. You really felt you could see the impact that we were making in our little community.”
Tom sorting green beans
The life of the (produce) party
After Guy has helped unpack the shed, our truck is unloaded, the produce is sorted and the pallets are ready to be distributed to communities, Debra, one of our “pit bosses”, steps in.
She always has a smile on her face and knows how to put one on others’ too.
Deb huddles her team, quickly assigns everyone a type of produce to grab (“you get 3 boxes of strawberries for each pallet”) and starts the clock. Honestly, our pit bosses and their team of volunteers might be more impressive than NASCAR - we have a record car loading time of only 26 seconds.
De facto traffic cop
Next, Tom, a tall guy with glasses, jumps in to direct the cars. A life-long vegetarian wanting to explore his long-time passion for ending food insecurity, Tom started volunteering with Grassroots in April 2023.
He says: “What happens if you keep showing up you keep getting more responsibility. I've been pretty consistent so I am now engaged in all the setup activities … I've become the de facto traffic cop moving cars in and out safely as we begin to distribute the food that we’ve collected.”
If you join us at an upcoming produce party, Tom will be easy to spot when it comes to packing-out time. He’s the one with the whistle, making sure all our drivers pull up correctly.
Debra helping to portion out produce
Driving out hunger
Joseph and Anne, two of our regular drivers, pull up as Tom blows his whistle. Joseph, wearing his characteristic safari hat, pops the trunk and rolls down his window to greet a volunteer he recognizes.
Joseph says: “I started sorting and packing but then I said to myself, I’m too old for this, and I noticed that they needed delivery people. So that’s what I’ve been doing.” He has been volunteering every week for two years, driving out produce mostly to Washington Heights.
Anne volunteered with Columbia University Medical Emergency Center until the pandemic hit, when she transitioned to working with Grassroots Grocery. Today, she wears red sunglasses to match her hair.
She says: “I love the people that I’ve met. I generally go to the same place all the time, they’re always so happy to see me and they’re very grateful.” She usually drives to River Park Towers, where the community insists on taking pictures with her each time.
Anne with a Grassroots Grocer from River Park Towers
“Hey you need help, let me know.” -Guytri
At Grassroots Grocery, our volunteers don’t just show up on Saturday mornings; they truly have built a community of “neighbors helping neighbors”, who work together to make our model as effective as possible. Guytri says: “I’ve always been very active in my community, wherever I live, and chatting with [Dan] and hearing about the stuff he started doing, I just said ‘hey you need help, let me know.’”
One Saturday squad member says: “Everybody puts in their ideas… We all want to make it work the best.”
We pride ourselves on building a community of people who come together, not only because of their dedication to ending food insecurity, but also because they genuinely enjoy working with us. Debra says: “I enjoy seeing everybody, we have a good time. … Everybody gives each other a big hug, and says ‘how are you?’ It's a nice thing.”
And our volunteers don’t just form friendships with other volunteers.
Tom says: “People have become friends. …that's not just the people that are on the volunteer side. It's the people on the other end on this distribution side. I look forward to seeing them every weekend and they look forward to seeing me.”
This community network is what makes us tick.
“When you have a diverse group of people, you really do get a more powerful outcome.”
Another volunteer says: “You have people from a lot of different communities, a lot of different backgrounds. And everybody brings stuff to the table, which is important. You're hearing things that you didn't realize were happening and they're hearing things from you that they didn't realize were happening and that's where it all just melts together. When you have a diverse group of people you really do get a more powerful outcome.”
Anne says: “I’ve always been aware of food insecurity in this country but [volunteering] made it personal.”
That is what volunteering at Grassroots Grocery is all about: building community, working together to end food insecurity, and learning how you can help reduce the issues happening in your very own neighborhood.
Next time you are there, give some props to The Crew, working so hard to make a difference.
