I then hightailed it from there over to the Rainbow Room where Citymeals-On-Wheels was hosting their 18th annual Power Lunch for Women, honoring Jessye Norman, Beverly Sills, Liz Smith, Gloria Steinem and Barbara Walters. Co-anchors (emcees) were Paula Zahn and her daughter Haley Cohen with a Special Performance by The Girls Choir of Harlem (Dr. Walter Turnbull, Founder/Director, The Boys Choir of Harlem, Inc.).

Citymeals-on-Wheels was founded by Gael Greene and James Beard in 1981 who raised private funds to supplement the government funded weekday meal delivery program. Today Citymeals funds 120 community-based agencies that bring weekend, holiday, emergency and weekday meals to homebound elderly New Yorkers who can no longer shop or cook for themselves. Last year they delivered more than 2 million meals to more than 17,000 homebound New Yorkers.

Marcia Stein and Renee Zellweger Paula Zahn and her daughter Haley Cohen Birdie Hale

Without them a lot of these people would go without food! 25% of elderly New Yorkers live alone and are often too poor to buy food or too frail to shop and cook. The home-delivered meals allow them to keep their independence and dignity while remaining in their own homes.

The majority of recipients are women and all are chronically disabled by conditions such as blindness, loss of limb, arthritis and heart diseases. In New York City, senior citizens are living longer, with more chronic health conditions. The fastest growing segment of the city’s elderly population is 85 year olds and above, and very often with incomes below the poverty level with lower Social Security payments reflecting less time in the work force as well as lower salaries in their years of employment. Food and a little company coming to the door every day not only makes a big difference but keeps many from institutionalization. Also, the cost of home-delivered meals for one year is equal to the average cost of just one day of intensive care in the hospital.

What most of us don’t think about about growing old is how solitary and isolated one’s living conditions can automatically become. We are no longer a society of big families with everyone living together, looking after one another. Our families, our children, our grandchildren are often separated by hundreds if not thousands of miles. Many of us do not have, have not had the gift of friendship to protect us from loneliness and isolation. Even many of us who do have a support system of friends lose this as we age. Thanksgiving and the coming holidays drive this point home even more emphatically.

So with all that in mind, Citymeals makes a community effort to right that wrong. They raise the money and keep the machine moving, and they inspire the volunteers who deliver and visit these people. This luncheon brings out a variety of New York women, including women who live in New York only part of the time, or near New York.

The luncheon is a very energizing affair. All these high powered girls in the tower overlooking all the city, and everyone is very excited to be present including the men.

Although there are very few men involved except those who are called the “10,000 Men,” those who donated $10,000 (providing 2000 meals). These included Rakesh Aggarwal, President of Baluchis and Devi Restaurants, Henry Buhl, founder of the Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless, Jeffrey Chodorow, restaurateur, Joe Cohen, Chairman of JM Cohen & Company (and president of Citymeals-On-Wheels), Shelly Fireman, restaurateur, (Bond 45, Brooklyn Diner, Café Fiorello, Redeye Grill); Bill Fischer, President Fischer Travel Enterprises, David Gilmour, Chairman and owner of FIJI Water LLC (the official water of the luncheon also); Ed Lewis, Chairman and CEO, Essence Communications; Michael Lynne, chairman, New Line Cinema, Simon Oren, President of French Roast, L’Express, Marseille, Nice Matin and Sushi Samba; John Pomerantz, President JJP Advisory LLC, Daniel J. Rusty Staub, Preston Robert Tisch, Donald Tober, Chairman and CEO Sugar Food Corporation, Bruce Wasserstein, head of Lazard and Chairman of New York Magazine, Robert Watman, President of Dance Plex, Fred Wilpon of the Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation, Inc.; and Steven B. Zavagli, CEO Wynn Starr Flavors. For the full guest list, click here.

The main speaker at the luncheon was the 92-year-old Birdie Hale, who recently became a client because she was homebound from a fall. An actress, she came to New York in 1943 from California with her husband who was shipping out overseas in the War. She stayed on in New York and developed a steady career. In the 1960s, she understudied Pearl Bailey in “Hello Dolly” on Broadway. Miss Bailey's occasional habit of deciding not to go on gave this woman a lot of work.

She told us she’d been walking for ninety-one years but now needed a cane. “Men,” she said, “fear death; women fear aging.” She hadn’t known about Citymeals until they started visiting her. Because she’d been a working girl all her life, cooking was never her strong point. She was one of the luckier ones because she still had family (in California) and a family of friends around in New York. Nevertheless, the visits and the meals from Citymeals made a big difference in her life.

“To fear aging is to fear life,” Gloria Steinem stated when she got up to the podium with the other honorees. “This lunch helps us treasure life.” A word to the wise ...

They raised $857,000 at the Power Lunch. That’s 171,500 meals. But at a need of more than 2 million meals a year, they’ve got a long way to go. Your help can make an extraordinary difference. Donations in any amount help to bring your elderly neighbors the nutritious meals they need. Citymeals also ensures that a full 100% of your donation will be used only for the preparation and delivery of meals. To learn how you can get involved or donate, go to: www.citymeals.org

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