Bronx Mutual Aid is a 100% community-led, volunteer-run free food survival program in the South Bronx.

Every Saturday, 1 to 2pm, we serve 400+ neighbors at St. Mary's Park. Right now we're also raising for back to school, so Bronx kids start the year with everything they need.

We don't take grants, foundation money, corporate money, or city contracts. Not because we can't get them, but because that money always comes with conditions: who you're allowed to serve, what you're allowed to say, who you're allowed to stand with. We'd rather answer to our neighbors. That means we're funded by regular people, and that's the whole reason we can show up every Saturday without asking anyone's permission.

Nobody here takes a salary. Every dollar donated goes right back into operating this program.

Every Saturday we hand out:

A hot meal, cooked fresh that week
Fresh produce and grocery staples
Clothing and shoes
Books for children and adults
Toiletries and hygiene supplies
Water, every single week
Narcan and harm reduction supplies

We also run free revolutionary political education, because meeting immediate needs and building political consciousness are both necessary.

Everything is free. We don't ask for ID or paperwork.

Capitalism taught this neighborhood to fight each other over scraps. We're building the opposite: neighbors who know each other's names and look out for each other.

Every Saturday since February, through everything

Heat waves. Torrential rain. Flash flooding. Hazardous air quality. We keep going, because our neighbors build their Saturdays around this and they don't get to take a week off from being hungry.

Showing up isn't enough on its own. Our job is to protect our neighbors, not just feed them. When the heat wave hit, we bought a chest freezer and handed ice-cold water to every person in line. On July 4th, in the worst of it, 300+ neighbors came through and every one of them got frozen water, groceries, produce, and a healthy meal. When the air quality went hazardous, we handed out masks to everyone who came through.

Food, clothing, hygiene supplies, cold water, health supplies. Whatever it takes to get our neighbors through the week.

What your money does

We'll tell you exactly what things cost. Our storage unit is $300 a month. Hot food ingredients run $65 to $80 a Saturday. Running the whole program costs roughly $1,500 a month.

$12 a month is a case of water, 40 bottles, for one Saturday.

$25 a month is the gas and tolls for one produce run.

$50 a month is 300 meal containers for the hot food table.

$80 a month is a full Saturday of hot food, bought, cooked, and served.

What's next: back to school

Bronx kids head back to school in a few weeks, and the list of what they're expected to show up with keeps getting longer and more expensive.

We're sending them back with what they actually need: a backpack filled with school supplies, plus the things nobody puts on the supply list but every kid is expected to have at home, like headphones and a mouse for schoolwork on a computer.

$50 fills one backpack.

Nobody's kid should start the year behind because their family couldn't cover a supply list.

Nosotros nos cuidamos. Nosotros nos protegemos.

A 100% volunteer-run survival program feeding 400+ Bronx neighbors every Saturday