With local hunger and unemployment numbers on the rise, nonprofit multi-service group Part of the Solution is expanding with the opening of a brand new $8 million facility next door to its current Webster Avenue location.

Part of the Solution, or POTS, known for its widely-used soup kitchen, case management and legal services, haircuts and showers, is bolstering each of its programs and adding others.

This comes amid reports of rising poverty in the country, according to the latest Census figures. POTS officials say they saw an 88 percent spike in the use of its emergency food programs from 2005 to 2010. According to the Food Resource Action Center, POTS serves the congressional district (the 16th) with the highest rate of hunger in the country.

Much of the new center is already in use. But the new facility is tentatively scheduled to open at full strength on Oct. 1, or whenever the new kitchen, the centerpiece of POTS’ programming, is completed.

The old kitchen served a maximum of 22 people at a time, whereas the new kitchen will have the capacity to serve 60 at a time. Staffers said the line to enter the old kitchen often extended outside the building and ran down the sidewalk.

For that reason and many others, the POTS staff says it’s glad to have the extra space.

The basement is now where those in need can go to take showers or get a haircut. There are now three showers to the old building’s one. A new, onsite medical clinic is still under construction.

The cramped space in the former building meant private, sensitive conversations, such as meetings with case managers or lawyers, were often held in corners of rooms or other not-so-private settings.

The staff emphasized the importance of maintaining the dignity of people using their services.

The new space allows for that. It means “there’s not someone changing after a shower while someone is waiting to see a lawyer,” said Chris Bean, the organization’s director of finance and operations.

They have added a waiting room for people who need case management and legal services.

Previously, “our waiting room was the stairway,” said staffer Antonietta Bertucci.

Now the waiting room is sunlit and clean. It’s nearly the size of some public school classrooms. Darlene Jeris, executive director for POTS, says the facility was built with excess capacity so that there’s room for the agency to grow.

Keeping people fed and healthy will remain POTS’ top priority as the Bronx is caught in the painful irony of having both the highest incidence of hunger and the highest rate of obesity in the city.

With that in mind, POTS is also adding nutrition classes and access to a pantry stocked with fresh and canned foods, the goal being to curb hunger and, at the same time, stem the tide of diseases associated with obesity like diabetes and heart disease.

To make sure the food is distributed fairly, they’ve introduced a point system, based off ones used by other nonprofits, where families are given points based on criteria like how big the family is.

On a recent afternoon, Silveria Jacobo had come to POTS to get food stamps. She said the space was different from other agencies she had been to that perform similar services. It was clean, she said the staff had respected her, and that she had been tended to quickly.  “There are other places where you have to get on a line at 6 a.m.” she said.

The construction of the new facility was funded by $5.6 million in private donations, a POTS surplus and a new tax credit.

admin

Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.