Soup and Lots More for 40 Years

Donn Dolce, one of many Rye residents who has supported POTS from the start.

POTS (Part of the Solution) will celebrate its 40^th anniversary at Westchester Country Club, May 7 beginning at 7 p.m. The spring fund-raiser will also be an opportunity to honor longstanding POTS supporters Mary and Mark Miller. The Millers’ efforts in introducing friends and colleagues to POTS over the years helped create dramatic growth of the organization’s profile and its ability to serve the Bronx community from its Webster Avenue hub.

That hub, founded by Sister Jane Iannucello SC, Rev. Ned Murphy SJ, and Timothy Boon, has grown from a small soup kitchen to a full-service center which provides over 2,000,000 meals annually to those in need.

The Rye community has been an integral part of POTS from the start. Donn Dolce, Chair Emeritus, told the paper this week, “It’s hard not towant to get involved in POTS. Thanks to the generosity of supporters, we’ve grown from serving meals to the community to providing legal services, P.O. boxes, a small grocery with healthy foods, showers, haircuts, medical, dental, job training, and legal services to those in need.” Dolce is particularly proud of their daily lunch service for hundreds of community residents, which treats diners with the same respect and dignity offered at good restaurants.

POTS board member John Krall, Manursing Island Club’s Executive Chef, credits Dolce and Rev. Murphy for inspiring his commitment to POTS. “Father Murphy had a way of getting to the heart of you, and having you understand that in helping others, you were helping yourself,” he told us. Since 2012, Krall and a dozen area club chefs have organized a fund-raising Dine Around held at Hampshire Country Club in Mamaroneck. This year, after a Covid interruption, it will be held November 15. Save the date.

The May 7 event includes dinner, entertainment, and a live auction with all proceeds benefitting the work of the organization in its fight against poverty and hunger in the Bronx. For information, visit bidpal.net/potscelebration.