Grassroots Grocery tackles food insecurity with fresh produce

Dan Zauderer is ready for a fight.

The schoolteacher-turned-Grassroots Grocery founder is battling against food insecurity, and he’s inviting New York City’s produce industry to join him.

Grassroots Grocery, a nonprofit powered by a “network of neighbors helping neighbors” to get fresh food to those who need it most, was born, like so many things, from necessity.

Prior to the pandemic, Zauderer was on his way home from the South Bronx school where he taught, when he spotted one of his students near the subway. The boy was with his grandmother, as Zauderer would later learn, and she was digging through a trash can in search of food.

“Even before the pandemic began, I had students who were dealing with food insecurity. But once the pandemic hit, I learned that 1 out of 4 of my students’ families were cutting down on meals or skipping meals a few times every week,” Zauderer told The Packer.

Without access to school lunch and breakfast programs, some families didn’t have enough to eat.

“It's hard to focus on what's going on in the classroom, especially if you're learning online and you have an empty, growling stomach,” he said.

Zauderer knew he had to help, and thus Grassroots Grocery began as a community refrigerator of sorts.

“The concept is basically just a household appliance — a fridge on the sidewalk. It's kind of like a lending library — where you give anything you can spare and you take what you need — and that's the way it started,” he said.

Fortuitously, one of the first people Zauderer reached out to in trying to keep the fridge filled with fresh food was Stefanie Katzman, executive vice president of S. Katzman Produce at Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx.

“Being located in New York City, we’re surrounded by so many people, and there are many food-insecure communities that need assistance with access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Katzman said. “At S. Katzman Produce, our greater mission is to improve the health and wellness of the population through the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. And our business model is set up to achieve this.

“It’s our job to find a home for every piece of produce — and that includes charitable donations to organizations like Grassroots Grocery,” she added. 

A produce party

To extend its reach beyond community refrigerators, Zauderer leased a refrigerated truck and put a plan into action.

Every Friday, Grassroots Grocery picks up a load of fresh produce from S. Katzman at Hunts Point. On Saturdays, volunteer drivers and community distributors meet in a parking lot a few minutes away from Hunts Point Produce Market. Volunteers unload the refrigerated truck and then reload the produce into their personal vehicles to distribute the fresh food to approximately 28 different locations in New York City.

What’s innovative about Grassroots Grocery’s model, Zauderer says, is the connection between the volunteers and the 28 community distribution points. Rather than dropping off produce at one central food pantry, Grassroots is distributing fresh food in public housing communities and pop-up pantries directly in the neighborhoods it serves.

“One of the statistics that is interesting is that only 1 in 4 New Yorkers with urgent emergency food needs is actually visiting a food pantry because of difficulties with accessibility — either physical access issues or emotional access issues,” Zauderer said. “So, a lot of people are not visiting big food pantries.

“Using our approach, we're able to get food out of the truck into the vehicles of volunteers, who are then able to bring that food directly to hyperlocal, super small locations,” he continued. “Our volunteers work with community leaders, and together they distribute that produce directly to the people in need. It's very important to me that the community leaders with whom we work have the autonomy to distribute the produce the way that they know is best for their own community.”

And it’s a fun and educational family affair.

“That's just what we do every Saturday and it’s really fun and family friendly. I call it a produce party — you know, everybody comes with kids of all ages. Kids love it because they get to see all the fruits and vegetables and they get to unload the truck and it's just super fun.”

Grassroots growth

In February 2022, Grassroots Grocery served an average of 615 families per Saturday across an average of 20 different sites. In October 2022, the nonprofit served an average of 1,165 families every Saturday across an average of 28 different sites, Zauderer said.

“In about eight months, our families served count almost doubled. And we also added more community leaders’ sites to our network,” he said.

Since Grassroots Grocery began working with S. Katzman Produce, Zauderer and S. Katzman Produce have worked to redistribute over half a million pounds of produce into under-resourced communities.

“It’s been instilled in me and my family from a young age that if we have the opportunity to help others, that it is our responsibility to do so,” Katzman said. “This is especially important when it comes to helping children in the community who can’t help themselves. And this is exactly what drew us to Dan and his mission when we first learned of the work he was doing, which stemmed from a need of his own students, who he witnessed experiencing food insecurity. He felt compelled to take action, and set up a community fridge for his students, their families and the Mott Haven community, in the spirit of neighbors helping neighbors. 

“Since then, in the time we’ve been working with Grassroots Grocery, they’ve increased their footprint and impact exponentially, as they’ve expanded from a community fridge in Mott Haven to a food distribution network throughout New York City,” she continued. “To date, we’ve donated 600,000 pounds of fresh produce to Grassroots Grocery, including 365,000 pounds in 2022 alone.” 

Hunts Point to the rescue

Zauderer started Grassroots Grocery in September 2020. For the first year, he worked both as a teacher and as a volunteer for Grassroots Grocery. In September 2021, he left his teaching position to focus on Grassroots full time. Since its founding in September 2020, the nonprofit has raised over $500,000.

“It's been quick and explosive growth, and Hunts Point Market is our lifeline. Without them we wouldn't be able to do the work that we do,” Zauderer said.

Grassroots Grocery has also been working with fellow Hunts Point Produce Market vendor D’Arrigo New York to redistribute fresh produce. And in December, it began taking produce donations from C&J Brothers at Hunts Point.

“The work of Grassroots Grocery is really only possible because of the generosity of these Hunts Point Produce Market vendors,” said Zauderer, who hopes to continue to grow Grassroots’ partnerships with Hunts Point Produce Market.

Zauderer also hopes to expand the work Grassroots Grocery does on Saturdays to additional locations in New York and eventually take it to a national level.

“We want to expand the amount of produce that we're rescuing. We want to expand the number of families that we're serving, and I think that it's just the beginning,” he said. “Even though we've done a lot, it's really just the beginning of a movement.

“Our rallying cry has always been, ‘neighbors helping neighbors,’ and that's what this is all about. It's about people coming together to help their neighbors in need,” he said. “I love being a part of it.”