For the 25th consecutive year, volunteers with Part of the Solution (POTS), soup kitchen and food pantry, and the Church of the Resurrection in Rye, New York, joined forces to serve an estimated 350 turkey meals on site to community residents at Our Lady of Refuge Church, located at 290 East 196th Street in Fordham Manor on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25.

Another 300 or so residents who had concerns about sitting and eating in a public setting amid the ongoing pandemic, or who were unable to provide proof of vaccination to enter the venue’s cafeteria, were provided with a complete turkey dinner, along with stuffing, potatoes, and vegetables to take with them and prepare at home.

Christina Hansen, executive director of POTS, said of the annual partnership, “We have this meal every year and it’s a great experience for everybody.” Towards the end of the day, Hansen said she believed the 85 or so volunteers had fed about 350 people on site, about the same number as in 2019, before the pandemic hit. An additional 250 to 300 “grab-and-go” meals were also distributed to residents and Hansen said that additional food not used at the Thanksgiving event would be served or handed out to POTS visitors to take home on Saturday, Nov. 27.

“Mitchell,” a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) worker who is a former, 40-year resident of the Bronx who now resides in Harlem, said of the meal, “It was good. Yes, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and corn.” He explained wistfully to Norwood News how the annual Thanksgiving dinner was a tradition over at least a decade for a trio of former transit workers. “We come every year, but one of our partners passed away last year so it’s just me and him left now,” he said, referring to his friend.

Mitchell said he believed the crowd for the annual Thanksgiving dinner was much bigger in 2019, before the pandemic. “Before COVID, this place was packed.” Asked about the importance of the annual Thanksgiving gathering at Our Lady of Refuge, Mitchell replied, “This is really important… the outreach, because people are starving.” He added, “Some people don’t have food, so to do this is really, really a good thing. It’s a good Christian thing to do.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 24, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Nourish NY program, launched in May 2020 amid the pandemic, permanently into State law. The legislation reaffirms the State’s commitment to providing support to those facing food insecurity, a predicament the COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus.

The Nourish NY initiative reroutes New York’s surplus agricultural products to the populations who need them most through the State’s food banks. State officials said the program also provides much-needed support for the food producers and farmers who lost markets during the pandemic.

The State’s food banks help fill the gap by buying agricultural products from New York farmers and food processors. State officials said the government has committed $85 million to the Nourish NY program since its launch.

He added, “It’s a big event for us. My people in Rye are extremely generous and all these people come down here. College kids come back. I just met a kid from Ohio State. He came back from Ohio yesterday and he came down here today and spent four hours volunteering to serve his brothers and sisters who are sick and hurting and hungry.”

The volunteers from both the Church of the Resurrection and from POTS said they will be back in December to organize the annual Christmas dinner. “Yes, we’ll be back for Christmas again, same place, same people,” said Dwyer. Then, as members of the Flume Ensemble began to leave, Dwyer said to them, “Great job! I went over to say hello to you, but you were reading your music. Thank you! It made a big difference.”

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.