Dan Zauderer

Dan Zauderer is a community builder, social entrepreneur, and the driving force behind Grassroots Grocery. His journey began as a middle school teacher at the Bronx’s American Dream School, where he discovered that one in four of his students were facing food insecurity. That moment changed everything. Leaving his teaching job, he co-founded the Mott Haven Fridge Network, a grassroots initiative that grew into Grassroots Grocery, a volunteer-powered movement bringing fresh, healthy food directly to communities that need it most.

Under Dan’s leadership, Grassroots Grocery has become a dynamic, warehouse-free model of food access, rallying families, corporate partners, and community leaders around its flagship Produce Parties and Great Sandwich Races. Every Saturday, more than 150 volunteers come together to distribute over 15,000 pounds of fresh produce to 25+ neighborhoods, proving that when neighbors help neighbors, transformational change happens.

Dan is committed to scaling Grassroots Grocery, bringing the pantry to the people while maintaining the movement’s heart—joy, dignity, and human connection. He believes in the power of simple actions, multiplied by community, to drive out hunger for good.

Founder

Board of Directors

Coming Soon!

In her early career, she worked at a community center that offered vocational, recreational, and educational services to at-risk youth. She served as Director of the Summer Employment Program and coordinated seminars and workshops for community engagement. She later went on to work in the private sector as a legal secretary in one of NYC’s largest Latino-owned law firms. Upon her employer’s election to the NYS Assembly, she returned to community service-oriented work as the Assembly member’s Constituent Office Manager. She worked for the Unified Court System as a Secretary to Supervising Judges in both the Civil and Supreme Court. She is currently a Court Analyst within the Civil Court’s Citywide Administrative Services. Itza began her volunteer work with the community fridge movement, exclusively with Grassroots Grocery and its network, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. First as a driver, now as a canvasser, she makes use of her well-honed skills of community engagement practices.

Elizabeth Smoltz has worked in Real Estate for over 20 years in various areas such as development, asset management, leasing, and construction. She is currently in the process of developing a large project in Northern Westchester. As her daughter is at Holy Child and has many service opportunities, she became a passionate volunteer at Grassroots Grocery. She is currently on the board of Aces for Alzheimer’s as well. She lives in Larchmont with her husband and three children and three dogs.

Dr. Rohan Amin is Chief Product Officer of Chase, leading product, design, and data and analytics teams across all lines of business. He also leads digital and customer acquisition and marketing platforms- including the Chase Mobile App and Chase Online, for the bank’s 64+ million digitally active customers.
Prior to this role, Rohan was the Chief Information Officer of Chase, leading a team of over 12,000 technologists globally and a technology budget of $4B. In this role he co-led the creation of the Chase Product Architecture and established product, design and engeneering teams that build all Chase customer and employee experiences and systems.
Prior to his roles in Chase, Rohan was the Global Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Chief Technology Controls Officer (TCO) for JPMorgan Chase. He was responsible for the firm’s cybersecurity, access management, technology controls and resiliency programs. He led the firm’s fortification of its cyber defenses and developed a world leading Information Security team.
Rohan came to JPMorgan Chase in 2014 from Lockheed Martin, where he ran Lockheed Martin’s Global Cybersecurity Solutions division that provided advance information technology, cyber and electronic warfare systems and solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and international customers. He also led the development of the corporation’s global computer network defense strategy and the creation of the Lockheed Martin Computer Incident Response Team (LM-CIRT).
Rohan obtained his Bachelor of Science in Computer and Telecommunications Engineering and his Master of Science in Telecommunications and Networking from the University of Pennsylvania. He also received his doctoral degree in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering from George Washington University. He is on the Technical Advisory Board for Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Rohan is also on the board of Grassroots Grocery, a New York City based nonprofit focused on food access for all. Rohan lives with his wife and two sons in New York.

Clarissa is a Public Health Professional with an interdisciplinary background and entrepreneurial spirit that uses creative relating as a tool for mitigating the effects of intergenerational trauma. With a vast experience in building strong relationships and developing solid community supports, she embraces her passion for creative expression to meet her clients where they are and is skilled in peer advocacy to assist community members facing various health-related disparities. Her educational training in Health Science paired with an interest in Health Education fortify her collective experiences in multiple social service industries. Clarissa’s knack for community-based business building allows her to work with diverse teams and compassionately support organizations in the application of tangible solutions to complicated Public Health issues including the Mental Wellness, Substance Misuse, Sexual and Physical Health, as well as Interpersonal Violence concerns plaguing the underserved populations of New York City.
Clarissa’s involvement with Grassroots Grocery has grown to align with the needs of the organization as it expands to continuously meet the Bronx community’s complex health profile.

Coming soon!

Sonia is an active community leader and a retired civil servant who loves contributing to her Bronx community. Starting as a volunteer, Sonia now works part time caring for the second-ever Mott Haven Community Fridge located on Brook Avenue.

Team

Bryon is the everyday face of Grassroots Grocery who makes our weekday deliveries into the community and who represents our neighbors helping neighbors mission with a smile and a helping hand.

Henry Greenhut, now a college student at Brown University, first joined Grassroots Grocery as an intern while at Horace Mann and has remained a vital part of our team. He leverages the power of low-code tools and JavaScript automations to develop apps that streamline our volunteering events and automate communications with volunteers and event admins.

A loyal volunteer since the beginning, Ruben is the watchog and caretaker of the first-ever Mott Haven Fridge on 141st Street & St. Ann’s Avenue in the Bronx.

Dwayne makes regular deliveries of food throughout the Bronx! If you see him in his van, give him a wave! He’s probably doing something good.

Advisory Board

Coming Soon!

After graduating from Cornell University in May 2023 with a BA in Government, Julia joined the Grassroots Grocery team this past September. Having grown up just outside of New York City, Julia particularly loves that this role allows her to make a meaningful impact in her community—in the true spirit of “neighbors helping neighbors”.

Alex, a Baltimore native, received her BA from University of Maryland where she combined studies in sociology, nutrition, and sustainability. With this, she has found a place in NYC on the Grassroots Grocery team - following her passion to help feed our neighbors that need it the most

John Barczak is a professionally trained chef, certified health coach, functional nutrition coach, yoga teacher, educator, and consultant. Upon seeking volunteering options to serve his fellow Bronx residents during the pandemic, John discovered Grassroots Grocery (then Mott haven Fridge) on Instagram and has been volunteering and lending his passion and insight ever since.

Matt Sahn is the Head of Engineering for Aladdin Wealth Tech at BlackRock and is a Tech Fellow there. He has helped develop front-end web applications, APIs, Java application servers, and high-scale portfolio risk calculation engines. Matt has joined our team as a pro-bono tech lead to help manage our tech product, open source projects, and our blossoming tech intern program.