Farm to Food Bank: Our Community Kitchen

At Food Bank For NYC’s community kitchen, the line fills with neighbors — parents, grandparents, people just trying to get to the next level. For the staff who serve them, it’s personal. Watching a child come through that line changes how you show up; you want to give them the best meal possible, the freshest produce possible, because that’s what any parent would want for their own kid.

Fresh food isn’t a small detail — it’s often the first thing families cut when money’s tight, since canned goods are simply cheaper than fresh. Every day, Food Bank makes sure fresh vegetables are part of what goes out the door, helping families whose SNAP benefits don’t stretch far enough stretch a little further. This is what community looks like — people helping people, no shame attached, just a hand up when it’s needed.

Give today — help keep fresh food on the table for every New York family.

Hunger Action Month is powered by Wonder through the Grubhub Community Fund.

Transcript:

[Pantry Staff] Hey. Glad you could make it.

[Jeff] Pantry is three days a week.

[Pantry Staff] There you go, Mommy.

[Jeff] It’s a line of everybody.

Everybody needs help.

It’s really a community.

This food helps them get to the next level.

There’s an extra meal on the table.

[Pantry Staff] Take it easy, okay?

[Jeff] To be a father, and you come out on the pantry line and you see a child—how does that not pull at your heartstrings?

How do you not want to give them the best meal possible, the freshest produce possible?

So that’s what I do.

You can smell it from here.

It’s amazing.

So every day we get our fresh produce and make sure they look good.

You can tell.

Getting fresh produce is important because you want to cook fresh.

You go into the supermarket, that’s the one thing people can’t afford.

It’s why people gravitate toward the canned goods, because they can’t afford the fresh.

[New Yorker] They give a lot of fresh vegetables every day.

[New Yorker] They really help me.

[New Yorker] I take them home.

[New Yorker] Oh, it helps with our budget.

When we go shopping, our SNAP doesn’t last.

[New Yorker] We really thank you.

We really appreciate it.

[New Yorker] I love it.

[Jeff] It goes a long way.

For us, it helps us feed more people—every dollar spent correctly.

So to be here and giving…

[Leslie] Thank you.

[Jeff] Always want to give more.

I’m from a community where it’s normal for people not to have.

Here we are.

It’s okay to need help.

[Volunteer] Got this for you.

[Jeff] Where people help people.

That’s Food Bank 101.