Eve here. It’s good that community groups see the heart of their efforts to feed hunger, but the fact that this push is occurring is the result of widespread reductions in federal food programs. Food Rescue, which we will explain below, uses undamaged surplus products, from food banks to schools and food pantries. There are also additional programs from retailers. One of the flashy grocery stores on the Upper East Side had their own bakery, selling only the same day products. ‘d usually take the time to eat and watch the staff assemble large bags of bread and rolls. They told me they were going to a meal charity. But even so, they had more leftovers, so they told me they would throw:-(
The Trump administration’s attacks on underprivileged people are multifaceted. KFF Health News has two recent stories focusing on another dimension. It means state leeways and millions of Medicaid red tapes in the new Medicaid federal work requirements. The second one is particularly worrying. Citizens who meet Medicaid work rules on all criteria will be denied compensation through the Kafkaesque (non-)approval process. And don’t make yourself a child that you are exempt from this kind of thing. Anyone who receives benefits, and potentially deals with federal bureaucrats (thinking the IRS), will become increasingly detrimental to this type of stonewalling.
I wonder how far away the poor families are from handing over their children to orphanages, within the scope of the impoverished orders of the present. And yes, parents get distraught when they feel they have no other options.
Mia Hollie, City Data Reporting Fellow. Originally published in the city on August 5th, 2025
Fresh Products of General Pantry Bronx Warehouse is ready for delivery to Food Boode on July 29, 2025. Credit: Alex Kreis/Town
A market is being produced in the world of nonprofits on a recent Tuesday, located inside a small warehouse at Hunts Point.
As Forklifts climbed the zigzag across the food rescue organization’s dock, team members funded the remaining stash of the cucumbers and checked for signs of decay, including mold, mushy texture and rotten smell. The viable cucumbers were then classified into mixed produce and single pallets.
Share excess unresolved food from wholesalers in the market, inspect it, then distributing it’s good to eat to over 150 food pantry and other organizations that serve New Yorkers that still affect food. The shared excess discovered in Philadelphia in 2018 has taken root in the 2-year-old New York City as part of a nationwide expansion, and currently distributes around £1 million per month that can be collected from the market.
Miranda Potomesil, director of the New York Program Program, said that the days are typical of machines, chatter, shuffle boxes and pallets fill the air. However, the operation is becoming more and more busy as sub-food banks and pantry turn to food rescues to fill the gaps left by the removal of previous federal programs before they can help buy food from local farmers and producers.
In March, the USDA notified the state that it had cancelled future rounds of its local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement program. Known in the state as New York’s Family-Friendly New York Cuisine, the program provides food, pantry, schools and other community organizations with funding to buy fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy products, and varieties from local farmers and producers.
The state’s Agricultural Markets Department has totaled $49.6 million in the previous two rounds, but the impact of the new $24 million INF is currently not coming from the USDA.
Since the cancellation of the federal program, Potmesil said that sharing excessive hunt point operations will add 18 organizations to its weekly and biweekly pickup schedules, adding 12 additional groups for one or even occasional pickups, resulting in an additional Redistribe production of 70,000 pounds per week.
“This increase represents the scarcity of the ground resources of the families and individuals we serve, but organizations sense deep budget cuts in social safety net programs,” says Potmesil.
One emergency food provider that adds rescued food to the mix is the Common Pantry in New York. This has resulted in 28,000 pounds of rescue food rising from just 9,000 in March by sharing the excess in June. The group had received a $2 million grant from a USDA-funded program that earned 13% of the organization’s operating budget, which led executives to steal the city in April.
“None of us are equipped,” said Judy Secon, the group’s assistant executive director. “We all need to work together to tackle this issue and we don’t have any resources available to do that.”
“Weight from our shoulders”
A few blocks after sharing an excess of warehouse, Christopher Jorge drove into a forklift in a common pantry warehouse, calming large pallets of fresh melons, apples and grapes between industrial racks loaded with canned lentils and tuna.
In the opposite corner, my colleague put fresh grapes, peaches, potatoes and Onononon in clear bags and groceries of delivered boxes and pallets of food.
A typical pantry worker pack produced Ate Bronx Warehouse on July 29, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/The City
The rescued food pantry’s own website in East Harlem and Crotona Park East.
The New York Food for New York Family Program helped popular pantry buy fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and bras. The USDA generally recommends that fruits and vegetables make up half of your diet.
Sharing excess is not the only group that acquires unnecessary foods. New York City Food Bank rescues production from Hunts Point Market, and since the 1980s City Harvest has rescued and distributed soup kitchens and Pontry.
Like Philadelphia, excessive sharing streamlines the process of rescuing food by operating from within the wholesale market.
“Based on the work we did there – we were capturing millions of pounds even in our first year – we made it clear that this was obedient.
That level of access means organizations can streamline supplies to a wide range of food providers, including other food rescue nonprofits.
When you share the excess with almost everything, you produce vendors in the market and collect food that you can’t sell. Vendors may impose surplus on certain items. Buyers in supermarkets and other wholesale tend to want a long-lasting meal that lasts a week after reviewing it from a vendor, Potmesil said. Food rescues usually melted from the greenery, sorted, and all distributed on the same day, she said.
This partnership is also beneficial for vendors in the production market. She said the vendors will have to pay the disposal fee to throw food they haven’t sold yet. However, through partnerships, they receive a tax credit based on the pound they take over into excessive sharing.
For them, the way of thinking
On a recent Friday, Jessica Ponce joined dozens of people waiting to enter the senior center near Corsihaus in East Harlem.
Her 83-year-old mother lives in a senior residence nearby and has been at the centre for over 20 years. She didn’t know that the food had been rescued from places like Hunts Point Market.
“Amazing!” she said while watching idling sharing an extra truck nearby. “If it gets damaged, you might give it to someone who needs it.”
Food banks, schools and other organizations have historically expanded their operations by using federal funds to extend their time, bringing more products and volunteers, and changing their purchasing practices.
For example, the New York City Food Bank developed a program where 30 BIPOC farmers learned more about product marketing, using New York food for their New York families. The program will also become farmers who will distribute 900,000 pounds of food through the food bank.
In 2022 and 2023, United Way of New York City used the $800,000 award to collaborate with Brooklyn Packers, a worker cooperative that distributed 300,000 pounds of fresh produce, grained from 15 farm businesses.
Now, executives are funded, as they endure the crisis that the people they serve are living in.
“It’s negative for the organization, not just the president and CEO of Grace Bonnila, United Way, in New York City, because losing grants in communities where we saw 132% of the cost we live in, and wages only rise by 75%,” said Grace Bonnila, United Way.
According to CEO and executive director David Greenfield, Met Council also relies on private security funds, primarily Jewish nonprofits that distribute kosher and halal products. The previous $2 million grant helped the organization improve its ability to distribute foods such as eggs, yogurt, ticukon and milk.
“Transporting urban, state and private philanthropy, it’s not a single source, and it’s not enough,” Greenfield said.
