The Bronx Community Foundation held its inaugural Day of Collective Action and Giving in Hunts Point over the weekend. The event brought together more than 250 community members, elected officials and nonprofit leaders to distribute over 200 laptops to local schoolchildren.
The Bronx Community Foundation also distributed $45,000 in grants — $7,500 each — to six community-based organizations serving the Bronx, highlighting the vital roles they play in the community.
The event, the first of its kind for the nine-year-old foundation, drew families who arrived well before the start time.
“Families and children started showing up at 10:45am to be in line,” said Executive Director LaToya Williams-Belfort.
According to a 2025 report by a Center for Urban Future, the Bronx has the lowest rate of broadband adoption in New York City, with 22.4% of households lacking home internet access and one in three households — over 184,000 homes — without a computer.
The expiration of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program in 2024, in which 44% of Bronx households were enrolled, has made things worse.
“If we don’t get devices into the hands of young people and families, the technology cycle is moving so fast. In a borough that’s already been left behind, we just deepen the divide,” Williams-Belfort told the Bronx Times.
Among the recipients were five brothers, who had previously shared two or three laptops between them. Their father, Christopher Love, said he is excited that each child can do school work and play games without interfering with each other’s screen time.
“Now all of them have a computer,” he said. “That’s gonna be pretty cool.”