Bread, diapers and hope: how Trinity church feeds New York’s hungry

A visitor to the food bank at Trinity Commons puts a carton of milk in a bag in New York on 25 November 2025. Trinity Commons is an extension of the nearby Trinity church. Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

On a chilly morning in Lower Manhattan this month, the line outside Trinity Commons, a modern extension of New York’s historic Trinity church, stretched on past the end of the block.

Hundreds of people were standing in the 44F cold, many with young children, waiting to get their turn for the Compassion Market food bank.