America's Largest Kosher Food Bank Gets A New Home: Met Council Opens $25 Million AI-Powered Food Bank And Conference Center In Brooklyn

More than 20 elected officials and more than 200 community leaders joined the grand opening celebration.

The 22,000-Square-Foot facility at 5361 Preston Court represents the largest capital project in Met Council’s history. The expanded and modernized warehouse serves as the central hub for its food distribution operation, supporting 344 pantry partners and helping bring fresh, nutritious Kosher and Halal Food to New Yorkers in need. It also houses an on-site digital food pantry serving Canarsie residents and a conference center where the organizations fighting hunger across New York can come together.

“No New Yorker should have to choose between paying the rent and putting food on the table,” said Met Council CEO David G. Greenfield. “We built this warehouse because the need keeps growing, and we have a responsibility to meet it. For the first time, America’s largest Kosher Food Bank has a permanent home built for the scale of that need, with the capacity to feed up to one million New Yorkers. We are using artificial intelligence to help us work smarter, waste less food and get more meals to families who need them. If you are fortunate enough to know where your next meal is coming from, you have a responsibility to help those who don’t.”

In fiscal year 2026, Met Council distributed more than 20 million pounds of food. Its food assistance and social service programs serve 350,000 New Yorkers annually, helping families, seniors, Holocaust survivors and others facing poverty get the support they need.

The warehouse combines expanded cold storage and advanced racking systems with barcode scanning, real-time inventory tracking, route optimization and AI-powered tools to help forecast demand and reduce food waste. These improvements will help Met Council store more fresh food and get it to pantry partners more efficiently.

“This is an extraordinary facility. It is beautiful, thoughtfully designed and built to serve New Yorkers for generations,” Greenfield added. “Our Board of Directors believed in this project from day one, and our private donors and public funders stepped up to make it happen. Together, they gave us the space, technology and tools to feed more people with dignity. We are deeply grateful to every person who helped us get here.”

The facility will also expand Met Council’s work through New York’s Social Care Network (SCN) Program, delivering medically tailored meals and nutritious groceries to eligible Medicaid members. Kosher and Halal options help ensure that New Yorkers receive food that meets both their medical needs and their religious dietary requirements.

The warehouse supports Met Council’s National School Lunch Program, which serves 144 schools, along with home deliveries to Holocaust survivors and homebound seniors, mobile pantry operations and year-round community distributions.

It also strengthens Met Council’s major holiday food distributions, including Passover, the Jewish High Holidays, Thanksgiving, Ramadan and Eid al-Adha. For this year’s Jewish High Holidays alone, Met Council distributed more than 2 million pounds of Kosher Food.

The facility is also home to an on-site digital food pantry, bringing Met Council’s choice-based model to Canarsie, a neighborhood with limited access to fresh, affordable food. Instead of waiting on line for a pre-packed bag, neighbors shop online for the groceries their families want, choosing from fresh produce, proteins, dairy and pantry staples, including Kosher and Halal options, and pick up their orders on site. The model, which was the subject of a Harvard Business Review case study, is built on dignity, choice and efficiency: shorter waits, less waste and real-time insight into what the community needs. The digital food pantry was only made possible with support from UJA-Federation of New York. Greenfield thanked UJA for their year-round support of Met Council’s ten programs to fight poverty.

The building also houses the Jewish Communal Fund Conference Center, a dedicated space for convening the pantry partners, community organizations, funders and public agencies working to end hunger in New York. The conference center will host partner trainings, coalition meetings and community gatherings, making the Canarsie facility both a distribution hub and a gathering place for the people and organizations fighting hunger across the city.

The $25 Million project was made possible through city, state, federal and private support, including a million dollar state matching grant secured by state Senator Sam Sutton and matched by Met Council donors and board members.

Speakers included Met Council CEO David G. Greenfield; Joseph S. Allerhand, Co-President of Met Council’s Board of Directors; New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli; New York City Comptroller Mark Levine; Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez; former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams; Hannah Lupien, Met Council’s Managing Director of Food Programs; and Daniel B. Blaser, President of Jewish Communal Fund.

Other officials attending included Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson; State Senators: Leroy Comrie, Kevin S. Parker and Sam Sutton; Assembly members Alicia L. Hyndman, Larinda Hooks, Jaime R. Williams and Kalman Yeger; New York City Council Deputy Leader Chris Banks; Council members Farah N. Louis and Mercedes Narcisse; and Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Kim Council.

Founded in 1972, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) is America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to fighting poverty, serving 350,000 New Yorkers annually through food assistance and comprehensive social services. Met Council operates America’s largest kosher food bank, supporting 344 pantry partners and providing kosher and halal food to communities in need. Its services include emergency financial assistance, benefits enrollment, support for domestic violence survivors, Holocaust survivor services, senior services and affordable housing. Met Council serves New Yorkers of every background.

For more information, visit: www.metcouncil.org.