It’s lunchtime on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and a 100-plus-pound bird sits in the oven. Outside, the dining hall is packed with more than just the usual faces. “We have so much here to be thankful for,” says Lillian Flachofsky, a regular at the Sister Annunciata Bethel Senior Center in Bedford Park. “I’d really miss the center if they closed it. It’s like a family to me.”

On a cold Thursday morning last week, Christina Taylor, the executive director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, spread her arms wide as if to encompass one of the biggest parks in New York City, and told the gathered crowd, "This is my office."

Taylor went on to explain that, with the help of a $57,500 grant from the Booth Ferris Foundation, her "office" would be getting a much needed makeover.

A State Supreme Court Judge ruled Tuesday in favor of the elected officials challenging Assemblyman Jose Rivera for control of the Bronx Democratic Party.

The City Council recently released a report highlighting the success of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card scanners at Greenmarkets throughout the city. Council leaders held up the system’s success at Poe Park as a prime example of how well it’s working.

Borough President Adolfo Carrion encourages Bronx residents to join their local community board. The office of the Bronx borough president will be accepting applications from residents of all 12 community boards in the bronx. To receive an application or for more information, contact the borough president’s community board office at (718) 590-3914 or visit bronxboropres.nyc.gov. You can also call Community Board 7 at (718) 933-5650.

A listing of public and community meetings for our readers in the northwest Bronx.

Earlier this year, police officers Carlos Pacheco and Nelfori Ortiz, were working the nightshift in the 52nd Precinct when they received a call from dispatchers saying there had been a robbery in Sector George, a rough area north of Fordham Road and to the east of the Grand Concourse.

Last week, a 39-year-old Hispanic male was shot to death in Bedford Park.

Patricia Carron of Morris Park was one of more than 100 distressed homeowners who attended a foreclosure prevention workshop at Lehman College on Nov. 15 hoping to get help. Her monthly mortgage payments have increased from $1,900 to $3,300 in two years, and now she’s worried that she and her 7-year-old daughter could become homeless.