Klein Announces $100,000 for Emerald Isle ‘Meals on Wheels’ Program

WOODLAWN, NY – Standing in front of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center located in the Woodlawn area of the Bronx, Senator Klein announced $100,000 in funding for Emerald Isle Immigration Center’s ‘Meals on Wheels’ program. This program, established in 2011 with the help of another grant secured by Senator Klein, has become a service on which many local seniors in the Woodlawn depend. Volunteers with the Meals on Wheels program deliver 20 hot lunch meals to local seniors every day. The funding Senator Klein secured in this year’s NYS budget will go towards building capacity, allowing volunteers to deliver to between 30 and 40 local households daily, nearly doubling the number of seniors currently receiving hot meals through the program.

Senator Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester) said: “Emerald Isle’s Meals on Wheels program provides an invaluable service to seniors in Woodlawn, a community with a senior population nearly double that of the rest of the Bronx. That’s why I fought to secure $100,000 in funding to help sustain and grow this free meal delivery program for local seniors. I’m pleased that with this funding, we’ll be able to enroll more people in the program, and make sure that Meals on Wheels continues to serve Woodlawn for many years to come.”

Following the press conference, Senator Klein joined volunteers in loading the meals into the delivery van and then delivered lunch to one of the seniors in the program.

Siobhan Dennehy, Executive Director, Emerald Isle Immigration Center said: “Thanks to Senator Klein’s grant in 2011, we were able to launch our Meals on Wheels program here in Woodlawn, a neighborhood that so many seniors call home. With this year’s funding, we will be able to greatly increase the number of local seniors who receive hot meals. On behalf of Emerald Isle Immigration Center, we are grateful that Senator Klein has allowed us to not just sustain our Meals on Wheels program, but help it grow.”