ANNUAL REPORT
2025
25
2025 Fighting Poverty in Hard Times: A Letter from our Executive Director
For more than 40 years, POTS has welcomed everyone who comes to our door with love and kindness. We began as a soup kitchen and have since expanded our mission to nourishing our clients’ goals for a better life for themselves and their families.
Our neighborhood in the Bronx continues to face some of the most complex challenges in New York City, a place where people strive every day for better lives for themselves and their children. In 2025, their struggles became even harder as the true cost of living continued to rise faster than incomes, while critical supports that many of our neighbors rely on became less reliable.
The extraordinary shutdown of the federal government and the inability of other public sources to fully offset reductions in benefits added uncertainty and greater hardship. Families who had been managing to get by were suddenly at risk of falling behind on rent, skipping meals, or postponing essential medical care.
In sum, in my 7th year as Executive Director, I have never seen such intense need in our clients, coupled with a barrage of policies that seek to undermine their progress.
Fortunately, I continue to be amazed by the responsiveness of our supporters, who continue to show up with extraordinary generosity to help us break the cycle of poverty in the Bronx despite the challenges of the times. As we have done for decades, POTS responded as best we could to help the growing number of people who were asking for help. Throughout the year, our staff, volunteers, and community partners showed their commitment to ensure that everyone who comes to POTS is met with compassion, respect, and personalized assistance.
Every partnership, every volunteer hour, and every contribution—large or small—helps us provide a safe, welcoming, and supportive place where people are seen, heard, and supported. It allows us to respond quickly in times of crisis and to stay with people as they work to build their lives. It is because of you—our donors, partners, volunteers, and friends—that POTS continues to grow as a trusted harbor in the Bronx.
Thank you for standing with us, for believing in our clients, and for helping to ensure that every person in our community has access to the food, care, and opportunities they deserve. Together, we are building a stronger, more just, and more hopeful Bronx.
With gratitude,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Understanding The Bronx in Context
In 2025, The Bronx remained a place where the distance between New York’s prosperity and the reality facing many of its families continued to reveal profound disparities in the city. The borough’s median household income was $48,676, compared with $80,483 citywide and $85,974 across New York State. This is also verified by how many people live under the poverty line:
The structural barriers faced by our community go beyond the economic factors and obstacles are reported on education, employment, and housing, among others. Food insecurity, for instance, illustrates the pressure on household limitations this year: the City’s 2025 Food Metrics Report found that 22.6% of Bronx residents experienced food insecurity, the highest rate of any borough and well above the 16.8% citywide rate. These are not isolated challenges. They are overlapping barriers that can turn a lost job, an unexpected bill, a health emergency or rising food costs into a crisis for a family already living close to the edge.
Clients Come First: POTS steps up to the challenge.
At Part of the Solution, we have more than four decades building a different possibility alongside our Bronx neighbors. Beyond responding to crisis, the POTS team takes a comprehensive look at each person’s challenges to connect them with resources on site and through referrals. We offer clients our services in a coordinated and personalized approach, with the following three programs on site:
Food Security Services provides clients with groceries and fresh foods that they choose for themselves and a community dining room to enjoy delicious, nutritious lunches year-round.
Dignity & Wellness offers clients showers, haircuts, a secure mailing address, and access to dental and medical care and substance abuse counseling.
Long-Term Stability helps clients move from crisis to stability with coordinated services tailored to the individual and their family, including case management, free legal services focused on avoiding evictions, a workforce development program, and a mentorship program.
In 2025:
meals
Provided through lunch service and pantry.
LOW-INCOME
NEW YORKERS SERVED
in economic value to the
community
Our Impact in 2025:
POTS served 36,600 low-income New Yorkers — including 11,690 children.
Food Security & Community Dining: Nourishment at the core of our service
- +2,800,000 meals distributed to +24,000 individuals through our renovated, supermarket-style, self-select pantry
- Nearly 5,500 unique individuals served in our Dining Room
- Nearly 290,000 hot meals served with dignity and hospitality
Dignity & Wellness: The support network that makes the difference
- +5,500 showers provided to nearly 600 individuals
- 3,000 haircuts provided to nearly 1,000 individuals
- 26 clients enrolled in detox and/or rehabilitation programs
Long Term Stability: Providing a route to stability and delivering on our vision
- +3,000 households secured nearly $17 million in public benefits
- 396 individuals achieved personal goals set with mentors, including +100 jobs secured, generating a combined expected income of +$2,700,000
- +1,200 households served with housing-related legal challenges, including +400 evictions prevented
- +100 clients participated in our English language programs.
POTS is committed to scaling up its successful model, based on our Stability Index to break the cycle of poverty for even more families and individuals each year.
Young Leaders, Lasting Impact
For years, students from Fordham Preparatory School have been part of the POTS community, volunteering their time to help Bronx families access food and other essential support. In 2025, they took that commitment even further, mobilizing their school community through food drives, fundraising, and service. Their efforts generated the equivalent of $142,000 in food and donations, while students also assembled more than 600 hygiene kits for POTS’ Dignity & Wellness Program.
Their support came at a particularly important moment. During the 2025 federal government shutdown, uncertainty surrounding public benefits and federal assistance added another layer of concern for families already navigating high food costs and financial hardship. POTS worked to remain a reliable source of food, services, information, and reassurance for our community.
Against that backdrop, Fordham Prep students demonstrated what responsive activism can accomplish, helping POTS meet immediate needs while reminding our neighbors that their broader community was standing with them.
That extraordinary year of service earned Fordham Prep and POTS the 2026 NYC Mayoral Partnership Impact Award, recognizing a partnership built over years and strengthened when the community needed it most.
POTS is also committed to advancing ideas that challenge assumptions and inspire solutions.
September 2025, POTS hosted its Annual Impact Forum with the NYU Robert Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the theme, “Harnessing Innovation to Fight Poverty and Promote Social Justice.” Moderated by NYU, the panel featured POTS Executive Director, and leaders of the NYC Department of City Planning and Robin Hood – Blue Ridge Labs. It explored how innovative methodologies and community-driven models can disrupt cycles of poverty and foster long-term social justice. See the Forum at POTS’ Impact Forum 2025
Financials
Thanks to the support of our donors, we maintained a strong financial position throughout 2024. Our commitment to using donated funds efficiently has paid off in terms of low management and fundraising costs.
REVENUE
| Individuals & Community Groups | $1,720,158 | |
| Government | $2,110,450 | |
| Foundations & Corporations | $4,492,179 | |
| Special Events | $1,384,128 | |
| In-kind | $1,932,173 | |
| Other | $348,483 | |
| TOTAL REVENUES | $11,987,571 |
EXPENSES
| Food security program | $4,540,246 | |
| Long Term Stability Program | $3,703,523 | |
| Dignity and Wellness Program | $609,310 | |
| Management and general | $485,118 | |
| Fundraising | $1,212,087 | |
| TOTAL EXPENSES | $10,550,284 |
PART OF THE SOLUTION AND AFFILIATE AUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES
| ASSETS | 2023 |
|---|---|
| ASSETS | 2025 |
| Cash and cash equivalent | $4,444,401 |
| Restricted cash | $261,088 |
| Investments | $4,571,647 |
| Contributions and grants receivable | $1,767,094 |
| Prepaid expenses and other assets | $161,444 |
| Right of use assets, operating leases | $2,684,769 |
| Property and equipment, net | $10,147,228 |
| ASSETS | $24,037,671 |
| LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS | 2021 |
|---|---|
| LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS | |
| LIABILITIES | |
| Accounts payable and accrued expenses | $244,646 |
| Deferred revenue | $404,897 |
| Operating lease liabilities | $2,910,855 |
| LIABILITIES | $3,560,398 |
| NET ASSETS | $19,494,977 |
| WITHOUT DONOR RESTRICTIONS | |
|---|---|
| WITHOUT DONOR RESTRICTIONS | |
| Undesignated | $17,949,977 |
| Board designated for capital campaign | $0 |
| Total net assets without donor restrictions | $17,949,977 |
| With donor restrictions | $2,527,296 |
| NET ASSETS | $20,477,273 |
| LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS | $24,037,671 |
| OPERATING REVENUE WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS | |
|---|---|
| OPERATING REVENUE WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS | |
| Contributions | $1,519,085 |
| Government Grants | $2,110,450 |
| Foundations and corporate contributions | $1,029,171 |
| Special events, net of expenses | $1,384,128 |
| In-kind contributions | $1,932,913 |
| Investment income | $300,460 |
| Miscellaneous income | $48,023 |
| OPERATING REVENUE WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS | $8,324,230 |
| OPERATING REVENUE WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS | |
|---|---|
| OPERATING REVENUE WITH RESTRICTIONS | |
| Contributions | $201,073 |
| Government Grants | $0 |
| Foundations and corporate contributions | $3,463,008 |
| OPERATING REVENUE WITH RESTRICTIONS | $3,664,081 |
| Expenses | |
|---|---|
| EXPENSES | |
| Food security program | $4,540,246 |
| Long Term Stability Program | $3,703,523 |
| Dignity and Wellness Program | $609,310 |
| Management and general | $485,118 |
| Fundraising | $1,212,087 |
| EXPENSES | $10,550,284 |
| CHANGE IN NET ASSETS | |
|---|---|
| CHANGE IN NET ASSETS | |
| Change in net assets | $285,135 |
| Net Assets released from restriction | $2,511,189 |
| Change in net assets with donor restriction | $1,152,892 |
POTS’ Mission
POTS is a loving community in the Bronx striving to serve all who come to our doors. From meeting immediate needs to offering long-term comprehensive services, we partner with each individual to empower them to reach their potential.
Our Vision
All Bronx individuals, families and future generations will enjoy freedom from hunger, achieve financial security, and maintain long-term stability.
Our Values
Community | Respect | Hospitality | Empowerment | Justice