Burrito Projects are community-supported groups that get together to make and deliver burritos to the community in hunger or living on the street.
Burrito Projects are 100% organized by volunteers, and 100% of donations go towards purchasing ingredients and supplies to make and deliver food. The original Burrito Project started in the Los Angeles area with a handful of volunteers and 100 burritos. Now, independent Burrito Projects are found in many cities in the United States, and even Canada. Utilizing donations, community, and corporate connections, free space, and word-of-mouth networking, volunteers usually meet regularly to assemble and distribute burritos to local unhoused residents.
"The groups rely on a mix of donated food and sponsorships. In San Francisco, different companies pay the bills each month, helping out with both funding and manpower...volunteers from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and other cyclists go wherever the homeless might be found, carrying homemade Google maps that display encampment areas the group has come across over time. Each cyclist stuffs a bag with 20 or 30 burritos. The general rule is one per customer, but no one who asks for a second is refused. Ingredients may vary depending on donations, but the burritos are kept vegan so they won't go bad if they're saved for a day or two...
The Burrito Project encourages volunteers not just to hand out food, but to stop and interact with individuals who are often neglected or avoided...At its most recent event, the San Francisco Burrito Project happened to have donated chips and coconut water to give away, along with hygiene kits put together by volunteer Anna Hurst and her friends as a birthday project. 'I don't know what the solution is,' she says, 'but at least this gives them something to eat.'"
Source: Alan Greenblatt, A Grass-Roots Effort To Feed The Poor Is Growing, Burrito By Burrito, NPR, June 1, 2018