We Deliver For Our Neighbors
Only 1 in 4 New Yorkers experiencing a food emergency can access a food pantry. Join the food justice revolution that brings the pantry to the people.
Rooting Out Hunger, One Borough at a Time
Grassroots Grocery is a nonprofit powered by a network of neighbors helping neighbors. Fighting for dignified food access for all, we activate communities by getting fresh food to those who need it most.
Our Impact
1200+
Avg. families reached each Saturday
30+
Community-led hyper-local food distribution sites
2,000,000+
Pounds of fresh produce distributed
4000+
Volunteers recruited
Grow The Garden
Join our community of monthly donors who fuel our neighbors helping neighbors mission!
How we Deliver: Our Programs
Rapid Rescue
It all starts with the wholesale bulk food we receive from the Hunts Point Market. It’s available, openly offered, and in need of rescue. Just a few miles away, there are families without enough to eat. The problem is, it’s too expensive to transport. This is where our Rapid Rescue program comes into play. Since March 2021, we’ve rescued and delivered almost 500,000 lbs. of fresh, excess, unsold produce. And thanks to our volunteer drivers we can bring it directly to places it’s never gone before: on main street, or hanging on a doorknob for someone who can’t leave their home. Every Saturday we rescue an average of 10,000 lbs. of produce and feed more than 1100 families.
Community Fridges
Community fridges are places where anyone can give what they can and take what they need. We’re going a step beyond and creating a network. As an organization, we run and maintain 8 community fridges with one more on the way! And that’s not all! More than developing an infrastructure and keeping fridges stocked, we work with community leaders to mobilize community action through food justice committees: self-governed community-based groups that do food-sourcing at the local level. Our vision is for each fridge to be a seed that grows on its own. We just till the soil.
Recent Press
Our Story
From seed to tree—this is how Grassroots Grocery grew from a single fridge to a food-justice revolution!
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“Working with Grassroots has been a unique and rewarding experience. The positivity that comes from the community, Dan, and the other volunteers has been palpable and invigorating. I look forward to the experience at each juncture.”
-Eric Caiola
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"Volunteering with Grassroots is a half hour commitment once a week that has an immeasurable impact on the community. The need is real. On my last trip I couldn't unload the car fast enough, people were starting to line up for the food. It doesn't get any realer than that."
-Victoria Ryan
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"Working with Grassroots Grocery has been very rewarding. I get to help and get some knowledge about what is going on in the neighborhoods. Not only do I get to help my community, I get to see them help each other. Whether helping me clean or donating. Which means that one seed of kindness (the fridge) is growing into a field of dreams."
-Lizvette
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"Volunteering with Grassroots Grocery has really helped me to feel like a part of my community. Everyone needs help in some way at some time, so I feel proud to know that I'm able to help at a time when someone needs it."
-Kirby Santeusanio
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"Volunteering with Mott Haven Fridge is so rewarding: for families that we help and for my children to see how we can make a difference."
Andrea Johnson
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"The Mott Haven Community Fridge helped me a lot since its beginning. Unemployment and with a cancer diagnosis, the fridge helped me follow my diet. For many in our community, the fridge was also the only way to access food daily during the pandemic. We need to continue supporting our community."
Venus Carrillo, Mott Haven Community Member, and Mother of Dan’s 6th Grade Student
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"Grassroots Grocery is one of the best things that happened to the neighborhood...I am so proud to have seen it from the beginning."
Sonia, Community Member and Volunteer
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"Once the fridge is filled anyone can access the products inside of it. They take only what they need and leave stuff for others. We also are able at times to provide pet food for our patrons. We believe that no one should go hungry. The fridge is sanitized on a daily basis by our volunteers and monitored by the public."
Claudia Perez, NYCHA GW Houses Resident Association President, and Grassroots Grocer
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"As the 43rd Precinct Community Council it has been an absolute pleasure working with Grassroots Grocery knowing the great service they are providing the different communities in the Bronx. These communities are in great need and the Community Council has found a way to help."
Aurora Carrion, 43rd Precinct Community Affairs Council President, and Grassroots Grocery Volunteer
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"My favorite aspect of Grassroots Grocery is how my children can participate and witness the direct impact of their efforts. Food is such a basic need that children understand. I have always found on the mornings we start our day with Grassroots, our experience of service sets a tone that we carry into the rest of our day."
Amanda Glattstein, Westchester Parent
Our Blog!
The latest and greatest in food access!
All these people really care about making a difference in the problem. That's why they're all there.” Andrew, 16, should know. He’s been a movement maker for three years. Come meet him.
“It didn't make sense to me to be just walking to the train station to go to school and see people ask for food. And then when I get to my supermarket they'd be throwing out extra produce.“ So Gabriella decided to do something about it.
The Student Food Recovery Task Force is a growing group of young leaders who are reducing food waste and nourishing their neighbors. Want to start your own food recovery project or club? Check out the Task Force’s top tips!
This is what volunteering at Grassroots Grocery is all about: building community, working together to end food insecurity, and learning about how you can help reduce the issues happening in your very own neighborhood.
Natalee, Andrew, Nate, are a family with a mission, and that mission is service. ”When I got to Grassroots,” says Natalee, “I saw that this was the mission. I’ve seen why. I’ve seen it firsthand.”
On April 4, a passionate group of student change-makers gathered on Zoom to learn, share, and inspire each other to recover excess food, reduce waste, and make the world a better place, starting at their schools.
It's about food—food from school cafeterias and beyond—carried to neighborhoods miles away.
But it's about a whole lot more. Today, I’m going to let Ryan Radwan speak to that “more.”
Grassroots Grocery proudly joins the celebration of Women's History Month. Today we recognize the powerful role of women in the food justice movement, highlighting four women in New York, who are doing amazing things with food, food, justice, and community.
Not many eighth graders think about changing the world. But Eva Paulovic, an eighth grader at Marymount School of New York, has plunged right in.
Josiah Rogers and his grandmother arrived at a Grassroots Grocery Produce Party in June 2022. They have never stopped coming.
When recalling when his grandmother first suggested he come to the Produce Party, Josiah smiles: “I'm like, all right, fine. It could be a good thing to shave some time off the day.”
It wasn't long into that first party that Josiah's feelings changed radically.
Meet our spring interns, Aiyana McDonell and Senna Camp! Hailing from Hamilton College’s “Hamilton in New York City” program, this dynamic duo will be working with and learning from Grassroots Grocery until early May. We’re thrilled to have them and we can’t wait for you to learn more about them!
Joie, Harrison, and Rachel, together with cohorts at Brooklyn Technical High School, haul something like 150 pounds of food every Friday to a community fridge to be given away free to neighbors who need it. Their school club, Fridge Fridays, has worked for months to put the program together.
Imagine a place where fresh produce is not just a luxury but a vital part of healthcare. Picture a passionate medical student and chef, Akhil Upad, whose mission is to transform food deserts into thriving oases of health and wellness.
On our first delivery..,there were folks who were living in the Holmes Tower public housing building behind the fridge. They just turned to us and said, thank you, and I could see the thanks in their eyes.
“In late 2021, I was amazed to witness people begging for food," exclaims New York student Will Nzeuton. Will and his brother Skai soon embarked on an awe-inspiring journey that has transformed public school food policy across all of New York City!A visit to their family's homeland ignited a fire within them. And then they crossed roads with Grassroots Grocery.
“I think food deserts overall are a huge issue,” says Jack. “And I think the way Grassroots Grocery is solving it is really interesting and incredible." Find out how Jack is bringing the pantry to the people and won the Student Change-Maker Award.
When Hurricane Sandy hit New York State in 2012, it wreaked havoc on various boroughs, flooding streets, damaging buildings and businesses, and killing almost 150 people in the US [1].
“I want my kids to be able to live in their community, prosper in their community and feel proud to be a part of their community…
It’s no secret that history has not been kind to women. But to this day, women are still fighting for their agency and their station in society.
“My mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother, and my great grand aunt were like the mothers of the community. [It] is in me, to help. I don’t know anything else to do but help.”
“It’s cheaper to eat poorly and when you are a person who is on a fixed income, or have limited resources, unfortunately, in the supermarkets or grocery stores where people shop,”
“I'm a lifelong Bronx resident, I love the Bronx, have not worked anywhere else but in the Bronx. And I’m just trying to make sure that people know the Bronx is a great place to be…”
“More people are finally seeing that these issues exist, are recognizing that it’s not right, and [that] we need to do something about it.”
“I’m a Muslim. Islam teaches to help one another. Our prophets most of the time is preaching don't try to be selfish…”
Hailed a “Hunger Hero” by the World Food Program USA, President Kennedy, in his devastatingly short time in office, acknowledged the hunger of those outside of our borders and took action.
There are few people who can say that their lives have not been affected by the global pandemic, and those who have been affected the most are the people who were already the most vulnerable.
…there was only so much that Parent Teacher Associations could do to help. Even though they tried to help, they could only help temporarily, but they couldn’t keep up with the need.
It just didn’t feel right to be out there screaming and protesting, and we weren’t doing anything for the people we were advocating for.