Masbia started as a grassroots charity to feed the hungry. It began as a simple vision shared by Mordechai Mandelbaum and Alexander Rapaport, a vision of a clean, well-lit and attractive place where poor men, women, and children could eat nourishing kosher meals daily for free. These two men set out to make this vision a reality, and on Sunday, April 3, 2005, Masbia — Brooklyn’s first and only kosher soup kitchen — opened its doors to the public.

Over the past eleven years since its opening, Masbia has served millions meals, which means tens of thousands of people (many of them children and elderly) have gone to bed with food in their stomachs, full and content. In the quest to tackle hunger, Masbia is the organization that will always do as much as is possible… and then strive to do even more.

In 2009, Masbia experienced several major expansions to its operations. From 2009 to 2010, Masbia opened three new sites — one in Flatbush, one in Williamsburg (now closed), and one in Rego Park, Queens — in addition to the original site in Boro Park.

Masbia also has developed recently two new exciting initiatives. Masbia actively networks with local NY farmers and CSA programs in order to get fresh and local produce donations. This year, Masbia established its Weekend Take-Home Package program at all three soup kitchen sites. Through this program alone, Masbia has gives out over 1,000 variously-portioned packages of food each week.

This past year has been an incredible time of growth for our organization. So far every year, Masbia continues to grow and serve at least 20% more meals than the previous year, currently distributing over 2,000,000 meals a year. Though Masbia’s vision has evolved in its scope and range, all these aims are inspired and initiated by Masbia’s original mission statement: “To provide hot, nutritious meals to the needy free of charge.” For more information, please email info@masbia.org.

---