January 27, 2014Listen below.

January 16, 2014By Leisha Majtan  NY1 VIDEO: The Masbia Soup Kitchen in Rego Park added blueberries and dried papaya to each bag of groceries that volunteers give out weekly to those in need for the Jewish holiday "Tu B`Shevat," or the "New Year of Trees," which took place Thursday.See the video HERE.

December 16, 2013By Veronique Greenwood and Jacob Templin Fresh, locally sourced food? Check. Art on the walls? Check. Helping New York`s hungry? Check.    

December 5, 2013 By BrooklynNews.com The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to announce that it has partnered with Masbia Soup Kitchen Network, along with five other Brooklyn food pantries and soup kitchens, to collect non-perishable food (canned or packaged) and raise money until December 20, 2013 as a part of the first Brooklyn Eats Cares.Brooklyn Eats Cares was created by the Brooklyn Chamber sponsored Brooklyn Eats, the borough’s largest food and beverage manufacturing trade show featuring products made in Brooklyn, to give back to the community.

November 28, 2013 By Matt Gnaizda, NTD TelevisionNEW YORK—The smoky-sweet scent of barbecue chicken fills the air inside Masbia, a restaurant-style food kitchen in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Chef Ruben Diaz is cooking enough chicken, plus soup and vegetables, to feed 460 hungry people for dinner on Wednesday.Masbia in Flatbush and its other two locations are filling a need that is only getting bigger this year.“I think we had a record number last Thursday,” said Masbia founder Alexander Rapaport.Three months ago, his three food kitchens were serving between 1,000 and 1,500 people each month. Now, they’re feeding more than 5,000.Rapaport says the increase is mainly related to cuts to the federal food stamp program, known officially as SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

November 27, 2013 By Heather Holland NEW YORK CITY — As you give thanks, give back.While many soup kitchens in the city have already filled their Thanksgiving Day volunteer slots, there are still a few last-minute opportunities to help.Options include helping a local charity serve a Thanksgiving meal, packing groceries that will be delivered to the needy, and donating food, toys and winter coats.“Volunteers may be dishing food onto plates, carrying them into our chapels, serving as waitresses, and making sure people have drinks, utensils or napkins,” said James Winans, an administrator at the Lower East Side`s Bowery Mission. “We will do our best to put them to work.”

Novemebr 26, 2013 By Holly Kellum NEW YORK—In a swanky lower East Side restaurant Monday, policymakers, philanthropists, and food charities offered suggestions for Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio to make good on the promise to end the “Tale of Two Cities” by cutting down on hunger and poverty.The event comes on the heels of a Nov. 1 cut to food stamp benefits from the federal government. Some 1.9 million New York City residents receive food stamps. Lines for food pantries and soup kitchens have become increasingly long, advocates say.

November 25, 2013 By Anna Sanders A month before the NYC Rescue Mission’s annual Thanksgiving banquet, executive director Mayes put his foot down: Only 200 volunteers.“If we have too many volunteers for this, it ends up being not the greatest thing,” Mayes said.He cut volunteers for Monday’s banquet by some 20 percent, feeling “like there were too many people just standing around” last year.Mayes acknowledges many New Yorkers see this as the best time to “give back.” But as soup kitchens and food pantries receive an influx of donations, cash and volunteers around the holidays, many grateful organizers like Mayes dream of year-round generosity.

November 14, 2013By Renny Grinshpan  Brooklyn grocers expect to take a hit and soup kitchens brace for great community needs in anticipation of the enactment of the Farm Bill.Roughly one in three New Yorkers rely on food stamps, also called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). So when cuts are made, food kitchens and grocers in blue-collar areas begin to notice. And with some cuts phasing in now and more coming down the pike, they are worried.

NOVEMBER 12, 2013 A year after so many generous neighbors helped others in need during Hurricane Sandy, volunteers and donors who worked at Masbia, the John Jay High School and Park Slope Armory shelters, Congregation Beth Elohim, the Sandy Relief Kitchen, and through the Old Stone House and Park Slope Parents, are invited to reconnect, reflect, and share a dinner catered by the Masbia soup kitchen network. The reunion is taking place tonight, Tuesday, November 12 from 7pm-9pm at CBE (274 Garfield Place).