ANNUAL SOUTH BRONX THANKSGIVING EVENT

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Stepping into the large hall covered in Thanksgiving decorations, its walls echoing with laughter and chatter from nearby residents, it’s hard not to feel at home. Guests are greeted with smiles and given a small sticker on which to write their names. Marty Rogers, 67, welcomes everyone with open arms to Thanksgiving dinner.

“It’s all about our community. Pride in the community. Joy in our community. Hope in our community. We often get stamped with despair and poverty and drugs and crime.

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BY PAMELA Y. ROZON

local community garden, Rogers is often seen on his “Hope Walks.” These walks offer food and support to the homeless community of Melrose during tough times. But Marty’s most popular event is the Thanksgiving community dinner, in which people of all ages and ethnicities come together to enjoy the holiday.

The Thanksgiving dinner is held at the Immaculate Conception Church’s Newman Hall in Melrose and features free home-cooked meals for the public. Rogers helped organize the first Thanksgiving dinner at the church in

Junelle Addei, 24, has been volunteering at the event since she was in the sixth grade. During her years as a student at Immaculate Conception, she heard her teachers talk about Rogers’ Thanksgiving dinner and decided to volunteer herself. Addei recalls the early mornings, the late nights spent decorating the halls, and the many meetings to discuss everyone’s role in ensuring the dinner’s success. It truly is a community effort. All the food is home-cooked, the drinks donated, and even neighborhood firefighters have brought in free-cooked turkeys.

Okay, those things exist,” said Rogers. “But what highlights us is this resilient spirit of love and brotherhood across races and colors and nationalities.”

Rogers is one of the many activists helping build a thriving community in the South Bronx. In an area with high poverty rates, high crime, and few resources, he has devoted himself to providing positivity to those around him. When he’s not tending to the

1977. With assistance from other community members, he decided to make it an annual event. It started off small, yet grew tremendously over the years.

“Over 40 turkeys with over 150 volunteers and all word of mouth. People are wonderful and people are generous. The need is there, and that’s why the dinner still happens,” said Rogers.

“It doesn’t feel like I’m coming to help out some strangers, it feels like I’m coming to serve my family,” said Addei.

For those who have no family to celebrate with, Thanksgiving can be a time of loneliness. The Bronx is one of the leading boroughs when it comes to poverty and homelessness rates. The Bronx has a median household income of about $41,895, and 24.4% of its population is living in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Overall, the city has around 60 thousand homeless people who sleep in shelters. The Melrose and Mott Haven areas have the highest citywide share of homeless living in shelters–3.3%. Homelessness has increased by 26% since 2012 in NYC. But Marty’s Thanksgiving dinner accepts all who desire to attend. It’s a safe place where homeless individuals can enjoy home-cooked meals surrounded by community members that treat them like family.

“A lot of these folks have a hard life. Some of our brothers and sisters are gonna sleep on the street tonight. They walk in the door and we tell them ‘We love you.’ Our hearts are open to them because some of them are in tough situations,” says Rogers.

Shakira Fontana, 26, has been volunteering at the dinner for more than 10 years. She has a deep appreciation for the community that surrounds her. She’s struggled to find a place to feel welcomed in life and has been in 42 foster homes. When she was 15 years old, her foster mom brought her to the Thanksgiving dinner event. Fontana was in awe of the community she found in those halls. People from all different walks of life joined together as a family, not caring where the other is from and offering nothing but support to each other. From that moment, she decided to volunteer every year.

“I haven’t stopped coming every year, all my friends and all my family know no matter where I’m at, I have to make it here,” says Fontana.

She brings her five-year-old son with her, and now that he’s old enough, he waits tables along with his mother, carrying trays of food and drinks. Attendees smile wide as he approaches, asking for their orders and acting as the ever-so-attentive waiter. His mother hopes to continue a tradition of community service with her son and will continue taking him to Thanksgiving dinner every year.

During the height of the pandemic, the indoor Thanksgiving event was canceled, so Marty decided to take the home-cooked meals to the streets. With the help of staff from the

Senior Center, he delivered free dinners to the homeless around the neighborhood, keeping the nearly 50-year tradition alive. Now, he’s happy the dinner is able to take place safely once again.

“It’s amazing, but people are doing it from the heart. People are doing it because they came from a background where they were immigrants. They came from a background where they were struggling on one level or another and they realized we must give back,” says Rogers. “We are joined together—we have to take care of each other.”