Rye Church Serves Needy During the Holidays

“Without you, I can’t help feed the needy, clothe the poor, get legal advice for those who can’t afford that advice or find a home for those who need a place to stay. You have helped make that happen for 26 years now. That is part of the ongoing miracle of Rye’s Church of the Resurrection and POTS. And without you there is no POTS.”

Father Ned Murphy was talking about the relationship between the Rye church and the organization known as Part Of The Solution, a multi-service center providing for some of the poorest people in the Fordham Road section of the Bronx.

Rev. Murphy made the same fund-raising pitch for POTS at each of the recent Sunday Masses, something he always does around Thanksgiving, emphasizing what he calls the latest Rye POTS miracles.

“When we started we had a handful of Rye volunteers who helped us run a Webster Avenue storefront soup kitchen on $20 per day,” he recalled. “Today we have a $2 million dollar annual budget and own our own three-floor building.

POTS serves a million nutritious meals annually, for 200 to 300 people, seven days a week. The center also provides an on-site medical clinic and an on-site legal clinic providing a transitional residence service, a pantry, financial assistance, information and referrals, gently-used clothing, and even a place to get a shave, haircut and shower for those who need it.

“We couldn’t have done it without Rye,” Murphy said. Rye POTS founders include the late Nan and Paul Hackett, Sue Scully, Beth Dolce and John and Beth June Lane among others.

In 1982, Nan Hackett helped establish the Rye Resurrection connection to POTS and the Fordham area. Her three brothers were Jesuit priests like Rev. Murphy. Murphy taught the classics, Greek and Latin, but wanted to work with the poor in the Fordham University area where he lived and taught and the Jesuits gave him a dispensation to do just that. Nan’s Jesuit brothers told her about Murphy's to establish a soup kitchen with a nun named Sister Jane Iannucci. The Hacketts decided to help out, and recruited some of their friends.

They were instrumental in getting Resurrection’s past pastor Msgr. Prior to invite Rev. Murphy to Resurrection to make a fund-raising pitch.

First he needed $86,000 because POTS had a chance to buy their own building at 2763 Webster Ave., allowing them to do a lot more for the community than the soup kitchen.

“That was the first Rye miracle,” Rev. Murphy said.

Resurrection parishioners go to POTS every day and serve meals on linen covered tables. “Rye ladies and gentlemen serving Bronx ladies and gentlemen, Rye giving the needy a sense of love, respect, dignity, and more,” said Rev. Murphy.

They also serve sumptuous meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Parishioners canvas local supermarkets for daily donations of leftover food and Resurrection School eighth graders help load those donations into vans and bring them to the Bronx.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Turco of Turco’s supermarket donates one of their trucks, along with lots of turkeys and trimmings to the annual holiday meals. NYC Mayor Bloomberg has even showed up to help serve meals at POTS.

“When we first started, we served maybe 70 meals on those holidays at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church on the Grand Concourse, not far from POTS headquarters,” recalled Beth June Lane who –with her husband John—helped serve those meals for nearly a quarter of a century. Now POTS Rye leadership rests with Wendy Bresnahan Seaver, along Collette Dempsey, David Mills and Robert McGuire.

“So many wonderful Rye Resurrection miracles for POTS,” says Rev. Murphy. “And if I know Rye and Resurrection, those miracles are going to be ongoing.”

Further POTS information: Part of the Solution, 2763 Webster Ave., Bronx, NY 10458; phone: (718) 220-4892; Fax: (718) 220-5603; email: sistermaryalice@potsbronx.org (Sister Mary Alice Hannan is POTS executive director); web: www.potsbronx.org.