On May 4, City Councilmember Peter F. Vallone Jr. stopped for lunch with the seniors of the Astoria Houses, following a recent, successful effort led by his office to save the free lunch program after it was discontinued for 10 months. Vallone provides discretionary funding to the Astoria Houses Tenants Association, which then uses part of the allocation of the free senior lunch program. However, the seniors were left without meals for 10 months resulting from a bureaucratic error. The councilmember intervened and managed to have the program restored. “I encourage all Astoria residents to contact my office—we’re here to help, whether it involves restoring a lunch program or having graffiti removed for free,” said Vallone