After attending a charity event where not everyone was able to attend, Barbara Bronstein began to wonder what would happen to the excess food.
This simple thought led her to discover that 35% of produced food is wasted, even though 39% of Houstonians face food insecurity, which is nearly triple the national average.
Bronstein said this staggering fact inspired her to bridge the gap between perishable foods going to the landfill and Houstonians facing food insecurity by starting Second Servings in 2015
How it works
Second Servings’ PopUp Grocery Store program has four part-time drivers who drive to local stores such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods seven days a week to pick up food that would otherwise be thrown out.
“Trader Joe's gets new lettuces every day. The old ones have to go, but the old ones are perfectly good, so they share their food,” Bronstein said.
The drivers then meet with a team of volunteers to set up the food at recurring locations, such as affordable housing complexes, YMCAs and local churches. To determine where to plan the pop-ups, Bronstein said the nonprofit uses a formula to screen low-income areas that are most at risk of food insecurity.
“We serve a lot of low-income seniors—they need the help,” Bronstein said. “There are a lot of seniors who are disabled and they're veterans, and they need help because they're living on fixed incomes, and the costs of everything have gone up.”
A closer look
At the distribution site, volunteers will set up sections that resemble a grocery store aisle—including bread, fresh produce, dairy, meats and desserts—and let participants choose which items they would like until the supply is gone.
Bronstein said having choices gives people dignity, which is why the pop-ups are set to resemble a grocery store shopping experience. She added that food waste is the No. 1 item in landfills, damaging the environment with potent methane emissions.
Since starting Second Servings, Bronstein said the nonprofit has provided more than $130 million worth of food across Houston and saved more than 18 million pounds of food from landfills.
The local impact
With grocery prices still 25%-30% higher than three years ago and recent cutbacks to programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, Bronstein said the need for food assistance has never been greater.
The nonprofit started the PopUp Grocery Store in 2022 with five sites and now typically operates at 48 sites most months, she said. Volunteers are critical to expanding the reach of Second Servings, which has two different volunteer opportunities offered seven days a week.
Bronstein said volunteers tell her one of their favorite parts is connecting with the same individuals every week and building relationships. Instead of packaging the food in boxes and loading it into a truck, volunteers get to interact with participants receiving the food.
“What they tell me they like most is that they get to see the fruits of their labor,” she said.
- 8825 Knight Road, Houston
- www.secondservingshouston.org
