Bloomberg Delivers Citymeals’ 34 Millionth Meal

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Citymeals-on-Wheels cofounder Gael Greene and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn help prepare Christmas lunch for homebound seniors at the Glenridge Senior Center.

Twenty-five years ago, on Christmas Day 1981,Citymeals-on-Wheels delivered its very first meal to a homebound elderly New Yorker who would have otherwise gone without a Christmas lunch. On Dec. 25, 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg marked this very special anniversary by delivering the organization’s 34 millionth meal to 88-year-old Marion Vessenmeyer of Ridgewood.

Vessenmeyer worked for more than 20 years in accounts payable at a company that made parts for ships on Metropolitan Avenue. She quit work at the age of 76 to take care of her husband who had Alzheimer’s disease. She and her husband started receiving home delivered meals in 1999 and she cared for her husband for nine years until he died in 2001. She raised her daughters in the home she still lives in, although recently a fire destroyed almost everything she had. Her companion is a 14-year-old dog named Ray, who she says she is very grateful to have for company.

Mayor Bloomberg shares a moment on Christmas morning with Citymealson Wheels recipient 88- year-old Marion Vessenmeyer of Ridgewood.

Citymeals’ co-founder and renowned restaurant critic Gael Greene and Marcia Stein, founding executive director, joined the mayor at Glenridge Senior Center in Ridgewood to help prepare and package special holiday lunches for Citymeals recipients who were home alone this Christmas.

“Today, we celebrate the true spirit of giving as Citymeals-on-Wheels marks its 25th anniversary,” Bloomberg said. “Through the tireless efforts of the Citymeals staff, volunteers and generous donors, thousands of homebound elderly will receive a festive and nutritious meal and, perhaps most important, a friendly visit for Christmas. I would like to thank Gael Greene, Marcia Stein and her staff for their decades of dedication and compassionate service to some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers. You need look no further than the smiling faces of the Citymeals recipients to fully understand all the good this one organization has done over the last quarter of a century.”

In November 1981, Greene, restaurant critic at New York Magazine, read a newspaper article about homebound elderly New Yorkers having nothing to eat on weekends or holidays. Shocked and angered, she made two important phone calls: one to James Beard, renowned chef and cooking teacher, who called caterer and cookbook author Barbara Kafka. The three of them made a round robin of calls to food-world friends asking for a pledge of money. Then came the second crucial call: to New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA) Commissioner Janet Sainer. “We have raised $35,000 for meals for the homebound, but only for meals,” Greene told Sainer. DFTA Commissioner Sainer quickly turned the funds into a Christmas meal for thousands of seniors who would otherwise have gone without.

What began in 1981 with a group of likeminded individuals and a historic public-private partnership serving Christmas dinner for 6,000 needy elderly at a cost of $35,000 has matured into an organization now underwriting 2.5 million meals annually and raising nearly $17.5 million this year alone. The promise made that first year was that 100 percent of funds raised would go to meals. The organization honors that promise to this very day.

“The holiday season is especially difficult for our Citymeals recipients. Since 73 percent of our seniors live alone, our deliverers are often the only human contact they have all day,” Stein said. “We now have over 800 volunteers reaching out to these lonely elderly. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Mayor Bloomberg, a longtime friend and supporter of Citymeals, for so generously sharing this milestone with us and delivering our 34 millionth meal.”

“Who could have imagined that two simple phone calls 25 years ago would lead to such a life-changing and life-affirming labor of love for so many of us who are involved with this dedicated organization,” Greene, who remains the chair of Citymeals and an active fundraiser, said. “I am proud to be here today still working for Citymeals and to have inspired such an important charity that feeds the soul as well as the body.”

Altogether, Citymeals-on-Wheels delivered meals, Seasons Greeting packages and friendly visits to nearly 17,500 frail elderly throughout the city for Christmas 2006. For aged New Yorkers whose meal centers were closed on Christmas, Citymeals previously delivered festive holiday meal boxes with enough food to get these seniors through the long holiday weekend. The boxes also contained warm fleece Citymeals 25th anniversary scarves and colorful hand-made holiday cards from schoolchildren that were designed especially for Citymeals recipients.

A new survey recently released by Citymeals-on-Wheels provides a glimpse behind the apartment doors of a population that is rarely seen and little understood. Among its key findings:

• 41 percent of Citymeals-on-Wheels recipients rarely or never leave home. • 73 percent of meal recipients live alone.

• Nearly three-quarters are women.

• Almost 70 percent are over 80 years old, including 12 percent over the age of 90 years.

• Nearly all need assistance walking–66 percent use a cane, 39 percent use a walker, 16 percent use a wheelchair.

• 14 percent rely solely on the one meal a day provided by the regular program.

• 16 percent need diabetic-appropriate meals.

Based on the study, Citymeals has already begun to implement program enhancements to meet the needs of the city’s aging population by:

• Expanding the second supplementary meal program to help 2,400 of the frailest and poorest, who rely on the one meal a day previously provided.

• Altering shelf-stable holiday and emergency packages to include more complete meals and whole grains and replacing canned food with pouches that are easier to open.

• Hiring a nutritionist to work with meal centers to create healthier meals using whole grains, less fats, and more herbs and spices.

• Expanding volunteer programs to reach the socially isolated elderly.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in December 2006, Citymeals-on-Wheels was founded in 1981 by renowned restaurant critic Gael Greene and legendary chef James Beard. Citymeals is a not-for-profit organization and public-private partnership with the city Department For the Aging that raises private funds to prepare and deliver weekend, holiday and emergency meals for homebound elderly throughout the boroughs of New York City. Over the course of the year, Citymeals will underwrite 2.5 million meals for more than17,500 seniors in New York City One hundred percent of donations from the public to Citymeals goes toward hand-delivered meals for homebound seniors. For more information, visit www.citymeals.org.