By Rachel Sherrow, Chief Operating Officer
September 17, 2025
Citymeals wouldn’t be able to deliver meals and connection to 22,000 older New Yorkers without the hard work and generous support of our provider partners across the city. Our annual STAR Awards are an opportunity to celebrate the case managers, kitchen staff, meal deliverers and drivers who help us fulfill our mission.
Winners included Anne McKenzie of Heights and Hills in Brooklyn. As a case manager, Anne works to make a difference for all her clients, but one stands out — a 71-year-old woman who’d nearly gone blind. She lives alone, so no one noticed how bad her vision had gotten. Thanks to Anne’s reassessment, the woman was able to receive extended in-home care, was referred to the Life Story Club and enrolled in Citymeals’ Breakfast Box program to make sure she always has food on hand.
Delivering all those meals is a massive undertaking, as Christopher Johnson and Hakeem Shavers, lead drivers at Great Performances in the Bronx, know well. They arrive early for their 5:00 AM shift to organize a thousand meals — hot, frozen, standard, Latin, vegetarian and Kosher. That’s 42 meal combinations across ten different delivery routes. More than once, Christopher has completed his delivery route only to head back out to assist a fellow driver or make an emergency delivery.
Speaking of emergencies, Kathy Dalbey of CCNS Southwest Queens is always ready to respond. A former EMT worker, Kathy will personally check on recipients who don’t answer the door for their regular deliveries. First, she’ll call them and, if they don’t pick up, their emergency contact. If she can’t reach them, she’ll jump in her truck and knock on their door herself.
Ray Lewis, a driver for RiseBoro’s home-delivered meal program in Brooklyn, shares their dedication. Once, while out on a delivery, Ray got stuck in an elevator. After the FDNY freed him, he called the RiseBoro team, not to cancel his route, but to let them know he’d be running a little late. Eric Cooper, the Home-Delivered Meals Coordinator at Carter Burden Luncheon Club in Manhattan, also never slows down. Since his program launched, he hasn’t allowed one person to go without their lunch, sometimes going out himself to deliver meals personally.
The delivery teams wouldn’t have anything to deliver if it wasn’t for the folks in the kitchen, like Younghee Song Kim. Under her supervision, Korean Community Services in Queens prepares over 300 meals daily. That includes home-delivered meals, congregate lunches and food for KCS’s Pop-Up Café. Younghee is a perfectionist, making everything from scratch and providing culturally tailored meals for the Korean community of Queens.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 STAR Awards. Without them, Citymeals’ goal of ending elder hunger by 2040 would be impossible. Each and every one — as well as the other winners and runners-up — is truly a STAR!
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