Amid New York’s abundant restaurant scene, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the city’s larger issues surrounding food. Nearly 13.5% of households are food insecure and more than 350,000 New Yorkers face homelessness. Especially during the holidays — when giving back is celebrated and cold weather hits vulnerable populations — volunteering is a great way to support those in need. But even after the festivities are over, local volunteer work remains a crucial aspect of building a more equitable community. Here are five New York City-based organizations that are stepping up to fight food insecurity.
The Bowery Mission
227 Bowery
The Bowery Mission, a nonprofit soup kitchen and shelter, has been providing service and care to New Yorkers in need since the 1870s. It has since expanded to six locations throughout the city with most of its volunteer opportunities at The Bowery Mission flagship campus, only a 15-minute walk from Washington Square Park. Last year, it served over 400,000 meals with the help of nearly 10,000 volunteers. Seven days a week, the organization offers volunteering slots for breakfast, lunch prep, lunch, meal prep and dinner. While most of its December slots are currently at capacity, The Bowery Mission encourages you to sign up for its waitlist, as last-minute spots can open up throughout the month — and to stay involved even after the holidays, when volunteering dies down.
Rethink Food
116 W. Houston St.
Rethink Food brings restaurant expertise to the food-volunteering scene by delivering high-quality meals to homeless shelters and food banks. Chef Matt Jozwiak founded Rethink Food in 2017 after spending years working in the restaurant business across the world and seeing first-hand how much quality food gets thrown away each year. Through its Rethink Certified program, the organization uses leftover food from restaurants across New York to prepare quality, community-kitchen meals and preserved products, like soup and jams. The program now includes over 45 small local businesses that regularly donate leftover food for meals and contribute a portion of their proceeds to Rethink. As a volunteer, you can work at Rethink’s Sustainable Community Kitchen and see how professional chefs turn excess food into a meaningful culinary experience. You can also support its partner restaurants to assist in preparing food for donation or be a part of its School-Based Initiatives, which educate students of all ages on topics ranging from sustainability to food insecurity.
Xavier Mission
55 W. 15th St.
A self-described “for-impact” organization, the Xavier Mission in Greenwich Village goes beyond meeting basic needs by helping unhoused New Yorkers reintegrate. The Xavier Mission’s Life Skills Empowerment Programs support individuals to meet essential needs. After the pandemic, the organization launched a new Financial Assistance and Eviction Prevention Program to aid those at risk of losing their homes, particularly immigrant families. Due to its small team, the Xavier Mission’s work relies largely on volunteers, who can serve soup at its Welcome Table Soup Kitchen, stock its shopping-style food pantry or sort clothes and toiletries in its clothing room.
Two Birds One Stone, NYU
Multiple residence halls
If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your Downstein leftovers, Two Birds One Stone aims to make sure that they don’t go to waste. With more than 1,000 student volunteers over the years, TBOS tackles hunger and homelessness in New York City by collecting and donating food waste from NYU. Five nights a week at 9 p.m., members of TBOS meet at either NYU Eats at Lipton, NYU Eats at Third North or Downstein to take leftover dining hall food to local shelters, such as The Bowery Mission and the East Village Community Center. The club also holds meetings throughout the semester, where you can connect with other service-minded students. Sign up on NYU Engage to participate in a meal delivery before the semester ends, or keep an eye out for upcoming events in the spring by following the club on Instagram.
Food Recovery Network, NYU
60 Washington Square S.
Similar to TBOS, NYU’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network takes a two-pronged approach to its volunteer work — the club recovers prepared food that would otherwise be wasted and donates it to local volunteer organizations and food pantries. Founded in 2011 by a group of college students in Maryland, the Food Recovery Network is a national organization, for which NYU’s chapter is just one out of many active chapters. It collects food items, such as pastries and slices of pizza, that weren’t sold by the end of the day from restaurants and bakeries near NYU. The club hosts several volunteer opportunities throughout the school year, such as meal-packing and card-making events, food drives and volunteer days with other local organizations. Stay up to date on its programming by joining the volunteer list and following its Instagram account.
Contact Ashley Combs at [email protected].
