Response to 12/19 The City Article
Dear friends, volunteers, donors, and partners,
Amidst all of our amazing press, one negative article surfaced in The City just a few weeks ago on Monday, December 19.
We requested corrections and retractions the next day. While some corrections were granted on December 23 (such as removing the outrageous claim we have a “rainy day fund”), the article is still extremely misleading.
Together, we have built a truly impactfful organization. We’re now serving over 1000 families every Saturday across a network of 32 community partners, and we’ve established and are helping to support six community refrigerators in public spaces throughout Harlem and The Bronx.
While I wish I didn’t have to spend time addressing this article, I want to set the record straight. For our amazing community of partners, volunteers, and donors. And also for the many communities we serve, and the neighbors within them whose lives we are lucky enough to impact.
Question: Who are the people making claims against Grassroots Grocery?
Answer: Individuals who have called out other reputable nonprofits and businesses.
The organizers quoted in the article are self-described anti-capitalist organizers. They are often opposed to 501(c)3 nonprofits as a way to address food insecurity because they see nonprofits as complicit in perpetuating our capitalist system.
Grassroots Grocery is a 501(c)3 nonprofit in good standing with the IRS. We are just one of many businesses and nonprofits to have been the subject of this group’s ire. Others include World Central Kitchen, Rethink Food, The Bronx Community Foundation, and the Third Avenue Business Improvement District.
Question: Am I “profiting” off of this work?
Answer: No. My compensation is fair and set by an independent Board of Directors.
In September of 2021, I left my job as a teacher and went without a salary for a year to grow Grassroots Grocery from the ground up. In September of 2022, I began drawing compensation comparable to the salary I was offered as a teacher for the ‘21-’22 school year, plus one year of inflation. My compensation was voted on and approved by our independent board of directors, who decided that it met the standards for reasonable compensation for an executive director of a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
Question: Do we compensate other people?
Answer: Yes. We have part-time staff members, with plans to grow.
While I am currently our only full time employee, we have four part-time W2 employees on our payroll. Three of these employees are people of color living within the communities we serve in the Bronx, and one is a high school intern. We also actively hire freelancers to perform various mission-critical tasks, ranging from tech work to maintenance. We plan to hire another full-time employee in the coming months to help take our work to the next level.
Question: Do we take donations from for-profit corporations?
Answer: Yes, along with many other reputable nonprofits.
Like many non-profits, we accept donations from for-profit corporations wishing to support our work. In some cases, this support comes from the charitable arms of for-profit corporations that require applications and perform a great deal of due diligence. In other cases, corporations pay us in exchange for engaging their employees at in-office, corporate volunteering events. Both forms of support provide us with much needed funds to expand our impact in the communities we serve.
We are in very good company here. Among the nonprofits receiving support from the corporate funders mentioned in the The City article are Bronxworks, Grow NYC, Henry Street Settlement, and The Campaign Against Hunger.
Question: Who are Grassroots Grocery volunteers?
Answer: Our volunteers come from diverse backgrounds, united in their goal to root out hunger.
We’ve been lucky enough to build a database of over 3,000 volunteers (and counting!) committed to our cause. Volunteers come from all walks of life and from communities throughout New York. At a typical Saturday Produce Party, you’re likely to see folks of all ages from the Bronx, Manhattan, and even Westchester County, representing all kinds of institutions, including houses of worship, public and independent schools, community-based organizations situated throughout New York, and corporate groups eager to make a difference.
The other indispensable part of Grassroots Grocery is our “grassroots grocers.” These hyper-local community leaders are deeply connected to their neighbors and know their communities better than nearly anyone else. They are the heartbeat of our work, ensuring that our volunteer-powered deliveries make it to those who would otherwise remain out of reach. You can learn more about them and their amazing work here.
Question: Is the money we’ve raised large and over-scaled?
Answer: No. It’s a great start, but we need to raise much more funds.
While our fundraising has allowed Grassroots Grocery to make important strides to reduce hunger in NYC, we’ll need to raise much more to continue scaling our impact.
Large anti-hunger nonprofits raise hundreds of millions of dollars every year (City Harvest had $336,508,316 in revenue in FY ‘21), and small to mid-sized nonprofits in the space routinely raise in the millions (Part of the Solution had $8,636,637 in revenue in FY ‘20, while Sylvia Center had $1,818,163 in revenue in FY ‘20). As a 501(c)3 nonprofit with big ambitions, our fundraising is well within the realm of reasonable.
Question: Do we spend the money we raise?
Answer: Yes, in a way that reflects nonprofit best practices and common fundraising trends.
We spend money every single day in pursuit of our mission to expand dignified access to food in the heart of disadvantaged communities. We fund the tech, trucking, infrastructure, and logistics to move bulk-rescued quantities of food to a network of 32 hyper-local community sites, and to support the operation of multiple community refrigerators. We pay our staff and contractors fair rates, and we pay me, our CEO, much less than many others in the space make.
But like any successful business, we don’t immediately spend all the money that we bring in — which would be a great way to fail to meet our obligations to the communities we serve. If you have ever saved for a security deposit to rent an apartment or to purchase an important piece of equipment, then you know what this is about.
Anyone interested in seeing how we’ve spent our money will be able to see our 990, which is made available to the public by law.
Question: Do we reveal the identity and location of undocumented immigrants?
Answer: Absolutely not, and we never will.
As a former middle school teacher who taught the children of undocumented immigrants, I am very passionate about the plight of undocumented immigrants in this country. I will always be open about their struggles, as I believe that more people should know about the injustices undocumented immigrants face on a daily basis.
However, I will never - and have never - revealed identifying information about an undocumented immigrant. Doing so would be a slap in the face to the families and students I worked so hard to support during my time at the American Dream School. Considering the years of my life that I devoted to working with undocumented families and their children, this claim is frankly offensive.
Question: Have I “over-publicized” our work?
Answer: Yes? I’ll take any chance I get to share our story and expand our impact.
I will take any chance I get to spread the gospel of Grassroots Grocery to more and more people who have the ability to help expand our impact. Hunger is such a huge problem impacting so many of our fellow New Yorkers that there is no amount of press that would be “too much.”
In fact, if you’re still reading this response and you can think of an outlet that can help us spread the message to more people with the time, treasure, and talent to expand our impact and reduce hunger in NYC, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
I truly hope that this note helps to clear up any questions that you might have had about our work as a result of the 12/19/22 The City article.
I’m more energized than ever by our work and the amazing partners - volunteers, community partners, and donors alike - who make it possible. I couldn’t be more hopeful about the prospect of a 2023 filled with abundance.
To all the partners reading, I can’t wait to expand our impact together to reach even more communities this year. You are so much of the reason that we can make our neighbors helping neighbors magic happen. Please reach out with any questions, concerns, or ideas. Onward!
With love, gratitude, and the utmost appreciation,
Dan
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Dan Zauderer
CEO & Founder, Grassroots Grocery