RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS

Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, Citymeals has delivered over one million weekend, holiday and emergency meals to New York City’s vulnerable elderly.

As the designated emergency responder for the city’s seniors, it is not only our regular meal recipients who have come to depend on us. Older New Yorkers, able to shop for themselves before the pandemic, suddenly faced the prospect of going hungry. Others had relied on breakfast and lunch from their local senior centers which were forced to close. Since March, Citymeals has welcomed 3,000 recipients to our weekend meal delivery routes and served an additional 34,000 of our aged neighbors who were not homebound before the crisis, many living in senior or public housing.

Nearly 5,000 volunteers have joined our dedicated staff on the frontlines to ensure meal deliveries could continue uninterrupted. For the homebound elderly, who are too frail to shop or cook for themselves, these deliveries provide critical nutrition and a regular wellness check-in.

You can sign up to volunteer and help your frail aged neighbors by delivering meals, making phone calls or creating handmade cards.

What’s going on is just terrible. Thank you so much for checking in. It gets pretty lonely here.

– Millie, 94-year-old Citymeals recipient 

Even before Covid-19, our meal recipients were isolated. Now they are more vulnerable than ever. Hear from some of them about how the pandemic is impacting their lives.

You can stay up-to-date on our evolving emergency response through our press statements and check out coverage of our work.

Citymeals is partnering with restaurants and others in the culinary community, who have donated products, services and meals to help nourish Citymeals recipients during this unprecedented time. We have also received generous support from our corporate and foundation partners, as well as retail partners who are donating a portion of proceeds from their sales.