The Citymeals Blog

Last week, we celebrated an incredible milestone as an organization — the delivery of our 70 millionth meal. I, along with Daniel Boulud, the Chair of Citymeals’ Board of Directors, made the delivery to Citymeals recipient Asha in East Harlem. Asha had a long career in law before she retired. Now, at 87 years old, her mobility issues mean she can no longer leave the apartment where she’s lived for 50 years.

Asha is just one of the over 22,000 older New Yorkers who rely on the meals we deliver to remain in their own homes and neighborhoods. Today, there are nearly 1.8 million New Yorkers over the age of 60. As we learned in our recent study, many of them are women, immigrants and people who live alone, often without any social support. It’s our mission to ensure that none of them go a day without a meal and a friendly check-in.

And while the fight to end elder hunger is far from over, it’s important to stop and appreciate these moments: 70 million meals delivered. That’s no small feat. In recognition of that, the New York City skyline was painted “Citymeals blue” — with the towers illuminated at 1 World Trade Center, 4 Times Square, 1 Bryant Park and the Sven building in Long Island City.

It’s times like these that I think of our late founder, Gael Greene. When she founded Citymeals in 1981, inspired after hearing that homebound older adults in the city were not receiving meals on weekends and holidays. I’m sure she could never have imagined seeing the buildings she passed by so many times lit up to honor Citymeals. Or that, over 40 years later, we’d be celebrating just how much this humble organization has accomplished.

As always, Citymeals is looking ahead to the future. It’s our goal to end elder hunger in the city by 2040. An ambitious goal, yes, but one we believe is entirely possible —though not without help. If you haven’t yet, sign up to volunteer with us. Together, we can deliver the next 70 million meals to older New Yorkers in need.