The Man Who Schooled Food Insecurity

Some people live to eat. But many eat to live, yet don’t have enough food to do so.

Dan Zauderer learned that firsthand during his five years as a South Bronx educator, when he witnessed one of his sixth-grade students with his grandmother digging through the trash for something to eat.

Discovering that one in four of his students’ families were food insecure, despite living just miles from the largest produce market in the United States, Zauderer began to imagine a place where anyone could take what they need, then made it happen by teaming up with his school community to open the first community refrigerator in Mott Haven.

Inspired by the momentum of his side project, Zauderer left teaching to found Grassroots Grocery. “I was called. I just saw the incredible energy of all these amazing people who wanted to get involved,” he said. “It made me want to take that next step. Our whole motto is to bring the pantry to the people.”

The organization has since gone from a refrigerator on the street to bringing food resources directly to community leaders who give out the food through their buildings.

Since its inception, Grassroots Grocery has established over 31 community-led hyperlocal food distribution sites, recruited more than 6,000 volunteers, rescued more than 850,000 pounds of fresh produce, and raised $2 million.

“We usually have about 200 people coming together on Saturdays in a parking lot in the Bronx. It’s beautiful to watch this parking lot transform. Within 30 minutes, it becomes a food distribution hub, reaching 1,500 families. We deliver food to 30 different locations. That happens every week like clockwork. We rescue produce that they can’t sell at retail from the Hunts Point Market and some other major wholesalers. We unload it, pack it, and sort it. You’ve got to see it with your own eyes, and then you believe it.”

Recently, the non-profit got a cold storage shipping container that gets plugged in at the parking lot, which will double the output.

Grassroots Grocery reaches mostly low-income housing and families, elderly folks in shelters, and those in transitional housing.

“That energy of neighbors helping neighbors, that’s what keeps me here,” said the husband and father of a newborn baby girl.

“It’s about civic engagement, bringing the community together, and teaching people what happens when you come together to support something that everyone knows: that everyone deserves to have dignity.”

If Grassroots Grocery can teach people to be good neighbors just by showing up for each other and watching what unfolds out of that gesture, and spreading that message to more of the world, Zauderer says he will consider his efforts a success.

He said, “I’m learning how to be a leader of a startup organization and be a dad. I’m blessed.”