Transcript:
Taina Rodriguez:
I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Puerto Rico, and came to the Bronx. I’ve been here ever since.
I love my community, and I legit have not only worked here, but have lived within the same area.
I was, eleven when I first came. My family was kind of facing food insecurity. And at fourteen, I got on [food] stamps and I never left. And I moved up the ranks.
Christina Hanson, Executive Director of POTS:
I know a lot of people who’ve said to us, oh, we didn’t know where to go. And then a friend told me to come to POTS and you provided us with all we needed and we were able to take those next steps.
Taina Rodriguez:
At first, me and my siblings did not know that it was a soup kitchen.
We all always just told my mom, like, ‘Hey. We’re going to the restaurant. Right?’ So, I kinda walked in one day, and I asked the host that day, like, ‘Can I get a job?’
And he’s like, ‘Sure! Come Saturday.’ And I’m, like, so proud of myself. I’m like, ‘I have a job, mom!’
And then I came in and I’m like, okay. ‘So how much do I get paid? I just wanna know.’ And he’s like, ‘No. You’re volunteering.’ I’m like, ‘What is that?’
Knowing what it is to be hungry or worried about your siblings or having to choose who eats and who doesn’t really opened up my eyes to, like, what I wanted to be a part of and not just put band aids, but really come up with creative ideas to really get people to a greater stability.
There’s a lot of people that invest all of their paychecks just into rent and basic bills and can’t even feed themselves or worry about anything else.
Once I realized what they were doing and how many people actually needed them and that we can rely on them and that I knew that we didn’t have to pay, there was no going back for me.
