Food Bank For New York City is the city’s largest hunger-relief organization. Since 1983 it has worked through a network of more than 1,000 charities and schools across the five boroughs, and its 90,000-square-foot warehouse at Hunts Point in the Bronx distributes roughly 58 million free meals a year. Leslie Gordon has led it as President and CEO since 2020. New York City’s food-insecurity rate runs well above the national and statewide averages, a product of high costs and deep inequality.
Food Bank For New York City is the wholesale engine behind the city’s emergency food system. From its Hunts Point warehouse it sources, stores, and distributes food to more than 1,000 frontline programs: pantries, soup kitchens, senior centers, and schools across all five boroughs. It also runs its own initiatives, including free tax-prep help for low-income New Yorkers, on the logic that putting money back in a household’s pocket reduces hunger as surely as a bag of groceries.
Leslie Gordon has been President and CEO since March 2020, taking the role just as the pandemic hit and demand exploded. Under her the organization roughly doubled its output to nearly 150 million pounds in well under two years. She came from Feeding Westchester and grew up around the Hunts Point market, where her mother ran the nation’s largest produce market, giving her unusual roots in the city’s food system.
The service area is all five boroughs of New York City. The city’s food-insecurity rate runs above both the national and New York State averages, driven by some of the highest living costs in the country alongside concentrated poverty. Pantry and soup-kitchen visits rose sharply in recent years and have stayed elevated.
Yes. Food Bank For New York City is a 501(c)(3) and a Feeding America member. Donors can review its financials through GuideStar and Charity Navigator. Its scale and bulk buying mean a modest gift translates into many meals across the city.
Donations and volunteer shifts run through foodbanknyc.org. Volunteers help at the warehouse and at community distributions, and because of the food bank’s purchasing power, cash gifts produce far more meals than the same amount spent at a store.
Within New York City, Food Bank For NYC is the central hunger-relief organization, working alongside City Harvest, which focuses on rescuing and delivering food, and a large field of community pantries. For donors and volunteers who want the broadest citywide reach, Food Bank For NYC is the main organization to support.
1,000+ pantries, soup kitchens, and schools citywide.
Tax-prep help that returns money to low-income households.
School and summer meal support across the boroughs.
Food assistance for older New Yorkers on fixed incomes.
Sources: Food Bank For New York City website (foodbanknyc.org), GuideStar (EIN 13-3179546), and reporting from amNewYork and JTA on leadership and pandemic-era growth. We are not affiliated with Food Bank For New York City and receive no compensation for this listing. Spotted an error? [email protected]
More New York and food-bank resources