Walk down Webster Avenue near 184th Street on a weekday morning, and you will see the line outside POTS — Part of the Solution. It moves quickly. Inside, neighbors pick up groceries from the food pantry, eat a hot meal in the community dining room, get a haircut in the Dignity & Wellness Program, see a dentist or a social worker, and meet with legal aid. POTS has been doing this work in the Bronx for more than 40 years, and in 2026 the borough is taking a moment to recognize how much of it has been done in partnership with one improbable neighbor: a Jesuit high school.
Earlier this spring, POTS and Fordham Preparatory School were jointly recognized at NYC’s 2026 Mayoral Service Recognition ceremony, receiving the 2026 Partnership Impact Award. The honor came for an everyday partnership that has produced extraordinary results: Fordham Prep students raised $142,000 in food and donations for POTS and assembled more than 600 hygiene kits for Bronx families through the Dignity & Wellness Program, which provides free showers, haircuts, medical care, and dental services to neighbors in need.
What This Partnership Looks Like Up Close
Fordham Prep is a few minutes’ drive from POTS’ Webster Avenue location. The student-driven food drives, hygiene kit assemblies, and ongoing volunteer rotations have become embedded in the school’s culture. Students rotate through serving meals and packing pantry bags as part of their service hours, and the school’s faith-based mission lines up neatly with POTS’ core idea — that material help and dignity are not separate, and that neighbors deserve both.
What is striking about the partnership is how unflashy it is. There is no single annual gala that drives the donations. There is no celebrity ambassador. There is a quiet, year-round routine of pickups, deliveries, kit assemblies, and shifts on the serving line that keeps both organizations running.
POTS Beyond the Headlines
POTS’ programs touch a wider footprint than most realize. The food pantry alone distributes hundreds of thousands of meals’ worth of groceries in a year. The community dining room serves hot meals to anyone who walks in, no questions asked. The Dignity & Wellness Program runs a barber chair, dental clinic hours, medical visits, and showers — a list of services that, taken together, treat poverty as something more complicated than a hunger problem alone.
For Bronx residents, POTS is one of those organizations that show up reliably, decade after decade, regardless of which administration is in office or which funding stream is in fashion.
The Wider Bronx Network
POTS is the front-of-mind name today, but the Bronx civic ecosystem is bigger than any single agency. BronxWorks runs an enormous slate of homeless prevention, youth development, and senior programs across the borough. Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) connects families with child care solutions and builds affordable housing. South Bronx Unite organizes around environmental justice in Mott Haven and Port Morris. City Island Oyster Reef partners with Bronx schools and research institutions on coastal resiliency.
If you have lived in the borough for a while, those names probably overlap with people you know. Bronx civic life is dense and personal in a way that does not always come through in citywide coverage.
How Neighbors Can Plug In
POTS accepts volunteers for pantry shifts, dining room service, hygiene kit assemblies, and special events. Donations of new toiletries, non-perishable food, and gift cards are reliably useful. The organization’s website at potsbronx.org has current volunteer schedules and donation guidance.
If you are a parent of a high school student in the borough, the POTS / Fordham Prep partnership is also a useful template. Service-hour partnerships between schools and neighborhood agencies tend to be more impactful when they are long-term and routine rather than one-off.
What You Need to Know
- POTS — Part of the Solution is on Webster Avenue and has served Bronx neighbors for more than 40 years.
- Fordham Preparatory School students raised $142,000 in food and donations for POTS and assembled 600+ hygiene kits.
- The pair were recognized with the 2026 Partnership Impact Award at NYC’s Mayoral Service Recognition ceremony.
- POTS’ Dignity & Wellness Program offers free showers, haircuts, medical visits, and dental care alongside food.
- Other Bronx anchors worth knowing: BronxWorks, WHEDco, South Bronx Unite, City Island Oyster Reef.
For more on the borough, see our Bronx neighborhood coverage, and our Bronx walking guides are a great starting point if you want to spend a Sunday exploring corners of the borough you have not seen yet.
