One bus. Five boroughs. A weekly answer to food insecurity in New York.

Hope Bus started in 2022 with one route, one borough, and a small crew of volunteers who had been feeding neighbors out of UMMA Foundation's Staten Island base. The need they kept hearing about — across the city, week after week — was simple: hot food, served close to home, without paperwork.

Today, Hope Bus runs five weekly routes — one in every borough — and has served more than 50,000 hot meals. We don't check ID. We don't track who shows up. We just cook, drive, plate, and serve.

Every meal is a moment of dignity. No ID. No paperwork. No judgment.

Who runs it

Hope Bus is a program of UMMA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity. The day-to-day is run by a small staff team and a rotation of more than 100 active volunteers — neighbors, students, professionals, families.

How it's funded

Every dollar comes from individual sustainers, one-time donors, peer-to-peer fundraisers (Ramadan campaigns, birthdays, mosque drives), and a small group of sponsoring organizations. Each route has its own monthly cost, and you can sustain them route by route on the Locations page.

Where we're going

We're focused on keeping the five routes consistently running through winter, the hardest months for food insecurity in the city. Beyond that, we're building tools (training, scheduling, lead pipelines) so the model can stretch beyond New York. If you've been thinking about a Hope Bus in your city, get in touch.