Our Warehouse

Imagine filling the ball field at Giant Stadium almost twice over with cans, packages and boxes of food. That's the relative size of the Food Bank's 90,000-square-foot warehouse — including a freezer and refrigerator for perishable products — located in the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx.

Every weekday food is collected, stored, repacked and distributed to our network of more than 1,000 food assistance programs throughout the five boroughs. The Food Bank's free, full-delivery operation dispatches 8 to 10 tractor-trailers full of food to help our network provide free meals every day to New Yorkers in need. The Food Bank distributes millions of pounds of food every year, including approximately 10 million pounds of fresh produce and more than 1 million pounds of meat and seafood. To date, the Food Bank has distributed more than 800 million pounds of food.

The Food Bank is unique in that it goes beyond the procurement, storage and distribution of food. The warehouse's advanced management system, including scannable bar codes, streamlines order processing and tracking for our food assistance program network. This system monitors and ensures a FIFO — first-in, first-out — system of processing food product. It also functions as a perpetual inventory control, expedites order fulfillment and provides an efficient order and tracking system for our network.

Volunteer groups regularly visit the Food Bank warehouse to break down bulk food containers of 500 pounds or more, then sort and repack the food into boxes suitable for the city's food pantries and soup kitchens. Repacking food also allows for the evaluation of food drive and bulk donations for quality control.

Learn more about the path our food takes from procurement to meals. Contact the Food Bank to take a tour of our warehouse or organize a volunteer group.