Food Bank Serves South Bronx Residents

CROTONA PARK, South Bronx 

“Number 16!,” a volunteer calls out from the doorway of a storefront looking down the line of people waiting for milk, fresh produce and other basic food needs. Elderly men and women with walkers and mothers with baby strollers stand behind barricades in the cold waiting for their number to be called. Once the volunteer reaches each number, residents get their reusable bags and carts ready.

The city funded program is an outgrowth of  Caldwell Temple Soup Kitchen founded by the Reverend Nathaniel B. Legay and Gloria Legay. Neighborhood people know this free food service as  PATHHSEO short for Programs, Advocacy Towards the end of Health Disparities, Hunger and Food Insecurity via Service, Education and Outreach.

The ticket system keeps keeps things organized and orderly when people start lining up at 8:45 in the morning. Volunteers give out tickets with a number to the first 300 residents who arrive. Food distribution starts the same day at 11:30 a.m.  Sandra Manzanares comes to the food bank frequently to get fruit and vegetables. “I take the ticket and right now, I [have been here] for half an hour,” she said.

The volunteers are the heartbeat of the program. They wear gloves and masks and stand at stations where each of them handle different types of food. One station had boxes filled with fruit and vegetables, another with boxes packed with eggs and cheese.

PATHHSEO founder and CEO Sandra Reyes came up with the idea fourteen years ago.  Reyes is a nurse and studied Non-Profit administration after working for the Department of Homelessness. “Nobody in this place gets paid. Everybody that works here in a volunteer base, including me, as the founder of this program,” Reyes said. “I am here to serve you. That is the only thing I am here to do.”

Volunteer adds produce to a local’s cart. Photo by Katelyn Polanco.

Marisol Sosa, began volunteering thirteen years and said that volunteering can be hard and frustrating. “I am here to help [Sandra Reyes] and the other people to give the food because I know there are a lot of people hungry in this city.” Sosa moved from Puerto Rico to New York City in 1980. “In my country, there are a lot of poor people,” Sosa said. “Giving a hand to the people is nothing bad. You need to give a hand because they need it.” 

PATHHSEO offers several other programs aimed to help Bronx residents. “We have an outreach program where we go to the street to feed people that are undocumented,” Reyes said. 

On Saturdays, volunteers set up a Soup Kitchen where residents can sit down to eat and take out food. The organization also has a haircut program, exercise classes, and nutrition education,

On a recent weekday, Bronx locals left the food distribution center with big smiles and a full cart.

Resident with a smile on her face as she receives food from a volunteer. Photo by Katelyn Polanco.