Gitel’s Pantry is the cornerstone food access initiative of The Gitel Foundation, created in honor of Gitel Rubin, whose life was marked by compassion, hospitality, and a deep belief that no one should ever go hungry. She held tightly to the value that every person — regardless of circumstance — deserves to be nourished with dignity and care.

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Today, we continue her legacy by combatting one of the most widespread and devastating epidemics of our time: food insecurity. In the United States alone, over 44 million people — including 1 in 5 children — live in food-insecure households, lacking consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. This crisis is not due to scarcity, but to inequity — driven by poverty, systemic injustice, and fractured food systems.

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As the Foundation’s first broad and far-reaching program, Gitel’s Pantry leads the charge in addressing food insecurity—one of the most urgent and pervasive social challenges of our time. Gitel’s Pantry recognizes that food insecurity doesn’t look the same for everyone, which is why it reaches into multiple forms of support, meeting people wherever they are