Giving Rye is a feature series highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Anne Bradner of the Port Chester Carver Center.
Your Name: Anne Bradner
Name of your organization: Port Chester Carver Center
Your role: Chief Executive Officer
MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission
Bradner: Port Chester Carver Center helps our community thrive through programs that nourish, educate, and empower.
Carver Center is Port Chester’s hub for holistic community support. As the area’s only community resource center, we provide a resource for essentials like food, education, youth development, and case management services, ensuring every individual and family has the support they need to thrive.
How long have you operated in or around Rye?
Bradner: Carver Center has been operating in Port Chester for 82 years.
What programming or work is the organization best known for?
Bradner:
- Addressing Food Insecurity – Our self-choice, store-like food pantry, the Carver Market, provides individuals and families with fresh produce, high-quality proteins, and nutritious pantry staples for no cost, three days a week. From July 2024 – June 2025, we distributed 700,583 pounds of food and had 28,732 visits. We also provide a free meal to all children enrolled in our afterschool programs for approximately 800 nutritious meals each day. Dinner at Noon offers a free mid-day meal on Saturdays from September – June.
- Youth and Young Adult Programming – We are proud to be operating in every school within the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District, extending our reach beyond the Carver Center. This expansive presence underscores our recognized commitment to youth development and delivering educational excellence. Our comprehensive services, which include afterschool programming, tutoring, academic enrichment classes, and dedicated mentorship programs, ensure that children and young adults across the district have an equal opportunity to thrive and succeed.
- Case Management – Carver Center is a trusted member of the Port Chester community, providing essential resources for everything from housing challenges and food insecurity to long-term stability. When a mother and her three children were suddenly evicted on a Friday afternoon, a passerby simply told them, “Go to Carver, they’ll help.” We immediately connected her with our Case Manager who secured emergency weekend housing. By Monday, we were helping the family find permanent housing and access vital services. Carver Center is committed to walking with every community member on their path to getting the critical help that they need.
Looking forward to 2026, what will be your top initiatives?
Bradner: Carver Center’s programs have expanded exponentially in the past few years. We’re now operating on a $7 million budget (as compared to $3 million in 2020), which presents new opportunities and challenges.
- Goal #1: Maintaining excellence in all that we do. Carver Center has intentionally developed into a fully professional organization, setting exacting standards to fulfill our mission and best serve the community.
- Goal #2: Strengthening Carver Center’s infrastructure to sustain growth. We are expanding our Finance and HR departments to support mission-centric work while expertly fulfilling all administrative and grant obligations.
- Goal # 3: Ensuring our facility—the heart, hub, and home of our mission—can fully support our growth. We have begun a long-overdue infrastructure renewal, starting with the parking lot and roof replacement, to guarantee a safe, welcoming, and resilient space for the community.
Tell us about the population you serve and how they can get involved with your programming and services.
Bradner: As one of the poorest communities in Westchester County, Port Chester grapples with issues such as overcrowded housing, high rates of poverty and under/unemployment, and a significant population of immigrants. With a poverty rate of 12% and a per capita income of $45,840, the need for pathways to a brighter future is paramount. Carver Center supports this vibrant and diverse community by offering case management services, English language learning and citizenship classes to empower residents for economic mobility and civic participation. Our clients are at the heart of everything we do.
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status?
Bradner: Yes.
Looking back across 2025, what were your organization’s top achievements?
Bradner: In the past year, Carver Center has greatly expanded our programming:
- Welcome Centers: We launched Welcome Centers at Port Chester Middle and High School to support students who have recently arrived in the community or have been identified as needing extra support as English language learners. In the first year, the program served 456 students.
- Workforce Development: Our youth employment program empowers low-income youth with vital job placements and workforce development training. This year, we successfully placed 70 teens with local business partners, providing paid experience at no cost to the employers. We recently launched a Workforce Development Academy for Youth to provide year-round educational and employment services to eligible low-income youth ages 16-24.
- Afterschool Expansion – Our afterschool program is operating in all four Port Chester schools. Children are engaged in academics, arts, sports, and STEM activities, and receive a daily, nutritious meal prepared by Carver’s food services team. This school year, 678 children are enrolled in afterschool.
- Scholarships: Our Scholarship Committee, led by the dedication and hard work of members like Rye resident and Carver board member Laura Iverson, achieved an impressive milestone this year: 35 high school seniors and college alumni received a total of $67,250 in scholarship awards.
How can local residents support your organization?
Bradner: The Carver Center runs on community support, and any donation, big or small, goes a long way. Another huge help is donating pantry staples to our Carver Market. We serve thousands of families annually, and your food donations help us save money that we can put back into our programs. If you’re looking for a group project, consider organizing a food drive or signing up to volunteer in the Carver Market! And, if you want to really understand the impact of your support, let me know! I’m happy to give you a tour of our facility anytime.
What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?
Bradner: The Rye community has consistently offered incredible support to the Carver Center. We rely on key partners like Rye-based Tietjen Venegas Consulting Engineers and principal Edison Venegas, whose expertise is invaluable as we address our facility and capital needs. Further strengthening this connection, Rye resident Kelly Shaw recently stepped into the role of board president and will guide our organization’s future growth.
Tell us about you:
How long have you been in your current role?
Bradner: I celebrated my seventh anniversary as CEO in October.
Is the role full time or part time? Paid or volunteer?
Bradner: Full-time. Paid position.
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
Bradner: Passionate!
Where did you grow up?
Bradner: I was born in Chicago and grew up in Winnetka, Illinois.
What principles guide you when you have to make a difficult decision?
Bradner:
- Listening to all sides
- Discerning what feels right.
- Being brave for the person or cause who needs me to be so.
Can you share a time when failure taught you more than success ever could?
Bradner: I studied ballet seriously for years. While I never “made it” to New York City Ballet, I learned discipline, built a solid foundation for my modern dance career, and came to understand that you gain a lot from learning, even when you don’t know where it will lead.
What excites you most about the future—for yourself or for the world?
Bradner: The children. My own and everyone else’s. I watch the kids at Carver discover their talents and joyfully persevere despite a lot of cultural and economic hardship. Our teens often talk about why they volunteer: they love to help the elderly by playing bingo at the Senior Center; or helping tote Thanksgiving grocery bags to people’s cars; or doing the Midnight Run to New York City. They give back generously because they care about belonging to their community.
Where do you live and how many years have you lived there?
Bradner: I’ve lived just over the Rye border in Harrison for 28 years.
Thanks Anne!
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