Day 7 - New York - Citymeals

So where did we leave off? New York, I believe.

Ah, yes, New York.

I will be the first to acknowledge, we are not New Yorkers and will never be Manhattanites. I really like New York and am totally envious of those who call New York home. But, I feel like everyone in NYC is about 3000% more composed than I am. For the most part Tim and I walk around looking slightly shell shocked when visiting the Big Apple, recovering from some incident, typically a faux pas on our part. Example: Tim and I drove around the same block 14 times having a heated debate about where to park. There were 9 parking garages on that one block, which equated to roughly one parking garage every 30 ft. When we finally decided on one, we pulled down the one lane ramp, only to be forced back up, into traffic, by a car that was coming up from the depths into which we were trying to descend. This happened not once, but twice. There was honking (traffic), swearing (us), and an obscene hand gesture (driver of the second car coming up the ramp).

But for all the difficulties we seem to have while visiting, NYC is quite charming on a Sunday morning - a lazy pace washes over the city, momentarily suspending activity, only to retreat by Monday morning when Hustle and his cousin, Bustle, reclaim the streets by force. I love Sundays in New York. They make me want to walk around, aimlessly, cup of coffee in hand, taking it all in.

And we did just that – walk around and take it all in. But, instead of carrying lattes or drip, we carried food. Twenty-one meals to be delivered to homebound elderly.

Citymeals-on-Wheels funds 30 community-based agencies that bring weekend, holiday and emergency meals to homebound elderly New Yorkers who can no longer shop or cook for themselves. The program was established to fill the vacancy left by government funding, given government funded programs only cover meals Monday through Friday and not on holidays. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008, Citymeals-on-Wheels delivered 2.2 million meals to over 18,000 New Yorkers at times when they would otherwise have been alone & hungry. For our part, Tim and I served by delivering meals-on-heels.

Each carrying two big brown bags of meals (I think Tim let me take the bag with the additional meal. Oh the horror! Chivalry had died!), Tim and I set off to deliver food. For us non-New Yorkers, it was a game, trying to navigate buildings and streets (New Yorkers, you can feel free to roll your eyes). We talked to doormen, rode elevators (in apartment buildings, how novel! You know, I can see you rolling your eyes again), and knocked on perfect strangers doors to offer them an afternoon meal of ham, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

In the hour and a half we volunteered, Tim and I stopped at 16 separate apartments in 6 buildings. We walked through open courtyards, up steps, under archways, between pillars, and across broad streets. We viewed the day as an obstacle course, treasure hunt of sorts, each apartment representing the ultimate find. The people who answered the doors on which we knocked ranged from timid to exceedingly friendly, one women telling me the history of her horn rimmed glasses (which apparently came from the best ophthalmologist on the east side, who used to be locate on third, but since her last visit had moved somewhere else. She could get me his card if I was interested. I politely declined, but repeated that I thought they were just about the snazziest things ever. And they were. They just oozed cool).

Every person we gave a meal smiled and thanked us, wishing us a good day and hoped we were keeping warm. One man thanked us for visiting with him. We hadn’t conversed much, just a few words about the weather or some other non-consequential topic while gathering the meal from the bag and handing it across the door frame. But he was glad for the contact, happy to share a few words.

Human contact is something many of us take for granted, something we come to abhor, actually. The majority of us are so inundated with people that we crave the quiet settled of alone time. But, imaging the inverse scenario is frightening. Craving companionship, but being unable to access it. While working with Citymeals, not only did we help to feed people who otherwise may not have eaten until Monday, but we also provided company, fleeting as it was, to those who don’t have the opportunity to take for granted the quiet of the streets on a Sunday.