Photograph by Getty Images
On a Monday morning, Brookhaven resident Erin Stieglitz stops by a Vinings bagel shop and heads to the counter. But instead of leaving with a cheddar-jalapeño or blueberry bagel, she’s out the door with seven huge bags, saved and frozen from the weekend. Staff members help carry the load. After stashing 350 bagels in her backseat—the trunk’s full of bagels, too—Stieglitz heads to another bagel stop on the Westside before delivering the goods to two Atlanta food pantries. Seven days a week, more than 300 volunteers make similar rounds across more than a dozen Georgia counties, all of them part of the sustainable nonprofit Bagel Rescue.
Stieglitz, a mom of two boys, 15 and 10, is the nonprofit’s founder and “chief rescue officer.” The concept of “rescuing” bagels began when her family wanted to feed frontline workers during the pandemic. Her oldest son, then 9, called Goldbergs Fine Foods, which yielded hundreds of day-old bagels that the family donated to Northside Hospital. Stieglitz learned other restaurants had unsold bagels going to waste, which sparked a plan to rescue the extras and feed hungry neighbors.
“When I think back to that first delivery, I think, Wow, what a journey,” Stieglitz says. “It was a chance discovery that changed my life.”
Rescuing surplus food to reduce waste and address food insecurity is not a new idea—local groups like Second Helpings Atlanta do the same—but Bagel Rescue is among only a handful of organizations nationwide devoted solely to bagels. After founding the project in 2020, Stieglitz says she taught herself “piece by piece” how to grow it into a thriving nonprofit. Bagel Rescue now works with more than 150 partnering agencies, such as food pantries and after-school programs, which serve them immediately to communities in need. In the past five years, Bagel Rescue has expanded to cities across the country, from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Portland, Oregon. It currently partners with more than 80 restaurants nationwide and has delivered more than 4 million bagels.
The nonprofit is funded through grants, donations, and fundraisers; three paid employees, including Stieglitz, run operations, while volunteers help drive the pickup and drop-off routes. There are plans to expand—Stieglitz has “feelers” out to open new operations in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana—but the grassroots, neighbors-helping-neighbors structure remains essential.
“I want people to know that everyone can make a difference,” she says, “even with something as simple as a bagel.”
This article appears in our July 2026 issue.
