Papitto Opportunity Connection is Creating a Firm Foundation for the Community

Barbara Papitto, founder of the Papitto Opportunity Connection, volunteers at the Share Market. POC has given $100 million to more than 350 nonprofit organizations since its founding in 2020. Photo by Dee Speaks.

At the first light of dawn, cars wait at the Apex building in Pawtucket, forming a line that weaves through the city like the yarn of a fraying sweater.

By 8 a.m., more than 600 cars reach nearly four miles into Providence, parked at the curb with hazard lights flashing. Those at the end showed up before sunrise, others arrived at midnight. But pole position belonged to Keith S., an Air Force and Army veteran who waited twelve hours to receive twenty-five pounds of free produce and protein, household goods and toiletries, no questions asked. (He didn’t want his full name used.)

The Elisha Project’s Share Market is a popular destination on this sunny Saturday morning in October for three reasons: 38 percent of Rhode Islanders are hungry, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds are in flux, and The Elisha Project has long been a trustworthy source of supplies when times are tough. The nonprofit was founded in 2011 after George L. Ortiz Jr. and his wife made twenty-four bagged lunches with the remaining $48.50 in their bank account and served the hungry in Providence. It now distributes four million pounds of food, furniture and supplies to 150,000 families every year across the Northeast.

Ortiz is its leader and chief servant officer, as well as an ordained minister and veteran who grew up in the projects of Brooklyn. He is on a mission to build the Amazon version of local food rescues because the lines that occur at every Share Market — and the people waiting in them — are evidence of the growing demand for basic services in Rhode Island.

“We are in the business of rescuing and reducing our carbon footprint, which is very different. We all want to feed the hungry. But the systems in place keep people in pretty harsh conditions. So, how do we help those that are on the brink?” he says, packing shampoo and deodorant into reusable shopping bags in the Apex building where he rents warehouse space. “People think we’re just about food. We’re also furniture, hygiene and over-the-counter medicine. Food we buy fresh every day.”

Volunteers from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island load food and other essentials into a trunk of a car at an Elisha Project’s Share Market event in Pawtucket last October. Photo by Dee Speaks

This all comes at a price, however. So as cars motor through, Ortiz thinks about the next donation, the next opportunity, the next 600 clients to serve. He knows he can’t approach this biblical undertaking alone, so he has assembled a hamlet of support. The fleet of seventy disciples packing tomatoes and frozen chicken thighs, organizing boxes of Band-Aids and diapers, and unwrapping crates of pillows and Lysol wipes are as diverse as the items they’re distributing: They’re members of the Shea High School football team, folks who once waited in The Elisha Project’s line, and mayors from across the state. He values the people and the partnerships as much as the financial donations.

He also points out one volunteer who has a clear vision about the things that can’t be packed in a reusable grocery bag: expenses, responsibility, trust. Barbara Papitto understands the pressure that Ortiz and other nonprofit leaders face and shows up to haul nine-pound bags of toiletries and veggies for more than two hours, swiftly filling the trunks to keep cars moving. Papitto is the angel funder behind The Elisha Project, donating more than $3.5 million over four years through her Papitto Opportunity Connection, a private nonprofit foundation. That infusion of financing and trust in Ortiz’s mission has allowed him to start creating the project’s biggest “bank”: a one-stop hub for food, furniture and pharmacy supplies. And he’s not done.

More than 500 boxes of food were distributed at The Elisha Project’s October Share Market. Volunteers included East Providence Mayor Roberto DaSilva; Lisha Gomes, chief operations officer at The Elisha Project; Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien; Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera; Barbara Papitto; and gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes. Photo by Dee Speaks

“What George does is amazing. I started saying prayers to help these people. This is something, and that’s a problem right now because everybody needs so much,” Papitto says. “We can’t do everything at Papitto Opportunity Connection, but we can make connections, and that’s where it matters.”

Indeed, those connections are the genesis of her work at the outset. Papitto and her late husband, Ralph, were both Providence natives with humble beginnings just like Ortiz and many of their other beneficiaries. She grew up in the city’s Wanskuck neighborhood; Ralph in Silver Lake with a childhood marked by the struggles and sacrifices of his Italian immigrant parents. This background inspired them both to work hard to escape their childhood confines and do more for themselves and others.

She worked as an accountant for a firm that helped build government-assisted housing, volunteered on several nonprofit boards and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Bryant University. Ralph was an entrepreneur and founded multiple companies, including manufacturing firm Nortek, and spent nearly forty years as a member and chair of the Roger Williams University Board of Trustees.

The pair began a legacy of philanthropy that surpassed their thirty-six-year marriage and included their 2008 founding of Read To Succeed, a program to help inner-city youth improve reading skills and earn scholarships. When Ralph died in 2019, Papitto wanted to nurture their shared passion for community service and founded POC in 2020 to support organizations across education, social service, hunger, health and more.

In five years, POC has invested $100 million in more than 350 nonprofit organizations across the state, from reading scholarships and financial literacy programs for youth, to a sickle cell treatment center at Brown University Health and job-readiness training for immigrants and refugees at Higher Ground International. POC also invests in initiatives to develop wealth and entrepreneurship among marginalized populations, like the RI Black Business Association, which provides access to capital funds and assistance with paperwork, banking and equipment for small businesses.

It’s a rare model for a seventy-four-year-old philanthropist and grandmother who still lives in Providence, but providing communities with critical infrastructure to develop programs and provide change-making opportunities is one of her most important roles.

“It’s easy when you just sign checks. But it’s the people that have the boots on the ground, doing the work, day in and day out, that matter,” Papitto says. “We can all contribute to this humanity, to this world, by stepping forward and doing something. Yes, I’ve given over $100 million, I’m very blessed. And at my age, if you’ve never seen the Brink’s truck following the hearse, it’s easy for me to give. But when we first started POC, we said, ‘What are we going to do?’ We wanted to serve the Rhode Island community of need, and when we got out here, we found out there are so many.”

FROM PAMPERS TO PEDIATRIC VISITS

Papitto sorts goods during the distribution. Photo by Dee Speaks

At the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, Dr. Beata Nelken’s medical practice, Jenks Park Pediatrics, had only just opened in February. Located in the shadow of Central Falls City Hall, it complemented her nonprofit Central Falls Children’s Foundation. When the city rose to the highest infection rate per capita in the country, the seasoned pediatrician thought she’d have to close immediately. But she became convinced that providing the best care to the people who had nowhere else to turn was the right decision. So, she bought equipment and suited up, offering free testing for anyone, regardless of health insurance coverage or documentation status. A four-block queue of patients formed almost overnight, as patients waited for her services when the state testing and vaccine center closed in 2022 after the pandemic’s zenith.

“Women were out there with babies in their arms in the cold waiting to get vaccinated,” Papitto remembers. “We were able to at least get them off the street into the building. But they should not wait for hours in line with babies.”

When Papitto saw that, Nelken recalls that “she called the governor and told him, ‘This is not acceptable. Why did you step down the state testing center? Because this is not OK.’”

What followed was an ongoing partnership and infusion of funds to build Nelken’s fledgling pediatric office into a full-service health care facility for women and children. POC invested more than $2 million, which led to the creation of Nelken’s Social Determinants of Health office.

They hired a multilingual social worker and nutritionist to identify patients struggling with depression, stress and failure to thrive, and to treat their subsequent poor nutrition and obesity. These are rampant across the city, so Nelken’s women’s health clinic followed in 2023 to improve health outcomes for women and children at large, offering expanded pediatric and ob-gyn services. Workers help patients translate and understand insurance and green card documents, apply for health insurance and find housing, and seek jobs and prepare for interviews.

When Nelken sees a flicker of determination in a patient or they have a history working in health care, she often hires the very people she inoculates and treats. She’s also turned a former senior residence into a women’s shelter. Nelken plans to add services for autistic children and adolescents, as well as dental care, in the coming years.

“The most Medicaid applications in the state come from our office. We are the hub for Rhode Island,” Nelken says. “And because we were able to offer vaccines with Barbara’s help, we became the vaccine and immigration hub for kids. Everyone in the state comes to us first. We do the shots for free. We don’t care if you have insurance or where you come from.”

In this tight community of only 1.2 square miles, Nelken’s leadership and vision is like a magnet, drawing people into her safety net. This includes Papitto, because she knows Nelken sees the health consequences of poor nutrition and living conditions, insufficient health care and confusion and lack of trust in the system — and that the basic social services she provides are the very foundation of community health care.

So “The Ladybug Doctor,” as she is known to her patients because of the ladybug in her logo, with her “Santa Barbara” by her side, have become quite the duo by combatting the generational pattern of poverty in Central Falls.

Volunteers pack a car with free produce, household goods and toiletries. Photo by Dee Speaks

“You have to provide services. It’s easy for people to say, ‘You’re homeless. Why don’t you get a job?’ But they need all of this kind of service in order to work,” Nelken says. “How can you study or work if you’re worrying about when the next meal is coming and if your internet is paid?”

Here at the shelter, she adds, patients get to that next level of stability, freedom and independence, and eventually graduate to a separate apartment. But that stability, with Jenks Park’s social work, food and utilities, provides a safe space where clients can focus on themselves and their children.

“It’s really a system that has sustainability in mind, with scholarships and all the support that really helps these mothers come in, find themselves in a safe space, and then get the support to grow,” Nelken explains.

Dr. Dio Garcia, pediatric office manager, executive director of CFCF and a Central Falls native, stresses the urgency of the unique layers of their work, and how it helps guide city residents toward sustainable paths of prosperity.

“Our medical assistants speak multiple languages. They understand the culture, understand the community. What better way to support than by providing the safety nets of safe housing and integrated health care, while providing programs that fill in the gaps with what patients need in one centralized facility?” he says. This center “shows that moms are the community. Everything else comes afterwards. We know that moms do everything for everybody else and take care of themselves in the twenty-fifth hour of the day.”

Like all the organizations she supports, Papitto is on board 100 percent, and she’s not shaking hands and kissing babies like a politician seeking reelection.

“All the elements are taken care of here. It’s an incubator for women, and if they could just let those elements go that were keeping them back, now they’re free to build,” Papitto says. “They have skills, they are smart — they just need a chance.”

TEACHING TEENS FINANCIAL LITERACY

Believing that education is the backbone of a thriving society, particularly in underinvested enclaves of the state, Papitto heavily invests in youth education. The Transform RI Scholarship is one such initiative, which POC introduced in 2022, with $4.5 million invested since then. They ask applicants: “If you had $1 million, how would you improve communities in most need in Rhode Island?”

Ten winners receive up to $25,000, with the grand prize winner receiving $1 million and expert resources to invest in their idea. Inaugural winner Mariam Kaba put her vision to practice. Kaba was aware that many in Woonsocket suffered with food insecurity, with 69 percent of the city’s students relying on free school lunches. With her $1 million award, Kaba created a food pantry and access to a refrigerator stocked with healthy food at The Harbour Youth Center in Woonsocket. It now services five different school communities in her hometown.

Money management is also at the core of Papitto Opportunity Connection’s educational purpose. Chief among POC’s beneficiaries in this sector is Financial Literacy Youth Initiative. FLY leads personal finance and money management classes for youth, teens and adults, teaching that proper investment at a young age leads to financial security later in life.

Founder and CEO Marcy Reyes, who is also a POC board member, dropped out of college and made a slew of poor spending choices before realizing there was a smarter path. Now a parent, she’s even more mindful of the importance of good financial strategies and wants to share that knowledge with youth of diverse backgrounds.

“We provide the educator, the materials, the activities, and essentially act as pseudo-faculty in academic settings, like a community-based partner for other organizations,” she says. “We just need a room, some form of technology for presenting, and we need a captive audience. That’s it. It is the simplest model, the hardest to scale.”

FLY partners with more than fifty different programs every year, including the MET High School, San Miguel Middle School, the Providence Public Library and more, thanks in large part to POC funding to support additional educators. It also partners with middle schools to give eighth-graders lessons in personal finance.

“Our demographic in Rhode Island is growing every single year, and our research shows that our proficiency gain on average is more than 20 percent higher than the national average,” she says. “And we’re at the stage where our very first class, which I taught, graduated from college last year. Our students come back and tell us, ‘I learned about this scholarship from FLY. I decided on this career pathway thanks to FLY. I graduated with no debt because of FLY.’”

In FLY, students make real-life decisions about money and assemble a financial plan with real-life data. They discuss where they will live after high school, how much an apartment and utilities cost, and suggest a roommate can help share that financial burden, Reyes says. Visualizing that financial model of monthly expenses, she says, helps youth anticipate what life truly costs, to plan where they want their money to go, and what good money habits should be.

“I realized from my own experience, my emotional connection to money, the way that I interacted with it and managed it, that [we must teach] the mechanics of managing money,” Reyes says. “‘What’s their relationship with money? How does it show up? Do they think that helps them make healthy decisions?’ We’re very careful about language, because psychology tells us that by using certain language, students disengage.”

Reyes is rolling out programming to Massachusetts and Connecticut and opened a New York location with the foundation’s help. “It’s exceptional to be in a position where I can help create these types of educators,” Reyes says.

Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera, left, and Barbara Papitto direct cars at the Share Market distribution event. Photo by Dee Speaks

‘WE’RE HERE TO HELP’

Papitto may look like a stereotype, but she isn’t just an ordinary donor with a checkbook and a guilty conscience. When she visits with her beneficiaries, it’s like she’s spending time with family. There are hugs, tears and laughter, googly eyes and a playful smile when a toddler wobbles her way. Then she stands aside while the real heroes suit up, providing a shadow of support and a buffer for a fall like a parent does with a child or grandchild.

“Just a few years ago during COVID, Barbara was helping carry bags of rice for the Laotian community at the Buddhist temple. So humble, so beautiful, so graceful, not speaking the language, but looking at their eyes, saying, ‘We’re here to listen. We’re here to help. And I see you,’” POC board member Ting Barnard said at a recent event honoring POC beneficiary Higher Ground International. “She does this every single day.”

Like the prophet Elijah, Papitto’s beneficiaries hope for miracles, and while she stands on the line at The Elisha Project’s Share Market or greets young patients at Jenks Park Pediatrics, Papitto is spreading hope to Rhode Island families, youth, immigrants and nonprofits.

Perhaps the miracle is that there will be no more lines at Share Markets, or that mothers and children won’t have to wait in the cold to see a doctor. Papitto will continue boasting about the work these groups do and the impact they have on the community rather than on the dollars she’s given to further their missions.

“You can see how hard they all work,” she says, “and to be able to be a part of it, I’m humbled that I can do what I can to support them.”