CHIPS: Christian Help in Park Slope
By Beth Griffin
Published:
06/23/2010
Above, a mural covers one side of the CHIPS building in Park Slope.
Above, Sister Mary Maloney, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, visits with Angelica Gonzalez, 25, and her four-month-old son, Ismael, in their apartment at the CHIPS building on Fourth Ave. in Brooklyn.
Above, men eat lunch in the cafeteria of the CHIPS building.
Above, Kenyetta Broadus, 25, poses with her daughters Dezaray, one month, and Mufutiatu, two, in their apartment at the CHIPS building in Park Slope. CHIPS is an acronym for Christian Help in Park Slope, a nonprofit charitable organization administered by the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor.
Above, a man writes his name on a sign-in sheet before receiving a free lunch in the cafeteria of the CHIPS building. CHIPS serves hot meals to the poor, needy and homeless and provides transitional housing for young mothers.
In a former garment factory on a wind-blown Brooklyn avenue dotted with auto supply stores and bodegas, nine new mothers get to know their babies in a safe, structured, cheerful residential environment while they transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency.
Downstairs, more than 100 hungry neighbors enjoy a daily hot meal prepared and served by volunteers drawn from local schools, churches and an organic food cooperative.
Sister Mary Maloney, a Franciscan Sister of the Poor, directs the operation with the unflappable air of someone who has seen it all in her three decades in the post.
The Frances Residency Program and the soup kitchen are projects of Christian Help in Park Slope. Known as CHIPS, the nonsectarian organization was started in 1972 by parishioners at St. Francis Xavier Church in Park Slope as a response to their study of the documents of the Second Vatican Council. It is now sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor.
Sister Mary, 78, a Brooklyn native and registered nurse, came to CHIPS after serving in rural health clinics in Brazil and West Africa. She was the sole employee of the group, which had $300 in the bank and operated out of a rented ground-floor space in a four-story, 19th-century building. After the soup kitchen guests left each day, volunteers moved the tables and set up cots for overnight use by homeless people.
The need rapidly outgrew the space. Sister Mary said more single, young, pregnant women came to the soup kitchen, and had no safe place to go to escape the violence of the streets and whatever family situation contributed to their homelessness.
When the building’s owner offered to sell the property for a reasonable price and gave CHIPS several months to raise money for a down payment, Sister Mary and the volunteer board scrambled to get private donations and a grant from New York state.
Ultimately, they gutted the building and reconfigured it to include nine airy studio apartments and a community room on the upper floors. Each apartment has living and sleeping areas, a kitchenette and a bathroom.
The Frances Residency, named for Blessed Mary Frances Schervier, foundress of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, opened in 1999.
“In our overnight shelter, we had so many women who were homeless and whose children had been taken away from them,” said Sister Mary. “There were very few shelters for mothers and babies. My dream was to give them a place to come.”
Women referred to the Frances Residency by shelters, hospitals and churches move in when they are in the third trimester of their pregnancy and are welcome to stay for one year.
Residence coordinator Crystal Smith helps the women settle in and develop an “interdependent living plan,” which outlines their goals.
“The mothers need a lot of love and support,” Sister Mary said. “Each has a different history, but the majority have not had discipline, they don’t know how to cook, they’ve been rejected at home and maybe by the father of their baby. Some of their own mothers are in jail or on drugs.” Their average age is 19.
Becoming Responsible Mothers
Each woman is required to apply for housing and food stamps, make and keep clinic appointments, sign up for a day care program and, when the baby is three months old, attend school, a vocational program or a job.
“We want to prepare them to have housing, a job and day care when they leave us,” said Sister Mary. “We want to give the mothers a chance to get on their feet, but we don’t want to take the responsibility of the baby away from them.”
Weekly volunteer speakers address topics including mother and child nutrition, banking, job search and interviewing techniques. One young resident showed off her baby girl and said the Frances Residency is a homey spot and “a nice place to put our heads.”
She said her favorite feature is the weekly lectures, “because we’re all new mothers and you can never know too much about babies.” At 21, she is estranged from her family, but in contact with the baby’s father. She is enrolled in a program to earn her General Education Diploma and has secured day care near her school.
Sister Mary said it’s a challenge to keep the women motivated to achieve their goals but gratifying to see the mothers care for their “beautiful healthy babies.”
On a recent rainy day in the soup kitchen, lunch was beef stew supplied in cans by a government program, supplemented with organic filet mignon cut from grain-fed beef. The filet mignon was donated by the Park Slope Food Co-op, which also supplies daily volunteers and donates surplus and about-to-expire foods.
“I love it here. It’s like family,” said Tom Pace, the volunteer kitchen manager du jour. “Everyone comes with a smile, and I’ve never had a grouchy person.”
Sister Betty Schroeder, a Sister of St. Joseph of Brentwood, is the full-time kitchen coordinator. A former elementary school principal, she organizes the volunteers and the food supply, which comes from many sources. She describes the balancing act required to utilize the purchased and donated provisions.
“You have to make sure you have enough food and that it lasts,” she said.
Sister Betty warms to the gratitude expressed by the guests and occasionally steps in to calm the situation when a diner seems ready to start a fight.
Sister Mary said 150 volunteers supplement a handful of paid staff.
In 2009, the soup kitchen served more than 70,000 hot meals and distributed bags of food to about 150 people each week. From 2008 to 2009, the Frances Residency hosted 36 newborns and their mothers. Nine of the mothers secured fulltime employment and 29 participated in pre-employment training.
Providence Always Provides
Sister Mary raises $30,000 a month toward her annual budget of $470,000 for the two programs. She recalls an earlier era when members of her congregation held cups and begged in public to support themselves and their works.
With a laugh, she said, “We’re still begging, but now we do it through a foundation,” the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor Foundation.
Sister Mary is optimistic about her fundraising, because she said Blessed Mary Frances assured her sisters, “Providence will always provide if you work for the poor.”