Weekend Meals Launch For Seniors In Forest Hills

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- Forest Hills seniors can have one less meal to worry about cooking over the weekend as the winter approaches and weather conditions grows harsher.

The Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior League will start offering take-home weekend meals to seniors that come to the center for lunch on Fridays, Acting Director Susan Rabinowicz told Patch.

The senior center, located at 68-07 Burns St., already offers daily lunches to anyone age 60 and up in a program funded by the NYC Department of Aging, Rabinowicz said. The program, which operates on a first-come, first-serve basis, will now be taking a list of names on Fridays to distribute a free additional to-go lunch for the weekend to those who want it.

"Many of these people cannot shop or cook, and with the winter weather coming up this will especially help," Rabinowicz said.

The Forest Hills senior center has been distributing complimentary lunches to seniors since it opened in 1981, she said. Since they don't take reservations, seniors typically begin arriving and signing in for the day's lunch sheet at the front desk when the senior center opens at 8:30 a.m.

By the time lunch starts at 11:30 a.m., the center is usually packed and its meal list full, so Rabinowicz encouraged those who want an extra weekend lunch to show up early on Friday mornings.

"Right now we're capping the number of meals, but if we see a need for it we'll offer more," she said.

Upon arriving, seniors are instructed to sign in at the front desk for both lunch and weekend meal sheets.

The weekend to-go meals will be distributed after Friday's daily lunch is served, Rabinowicz said. Kosher meal options are available.

"We serve everyone, regardless of religion or ethnicity, as long as you're over 60," Rabinowicz said.

She said the weekend meal program was created, in part, because of growing demand among the senior league's members, especially with the winter months approaching.

"It's an enhancement to their lives, which is what we always try to offer," Rabinowicz said.

Lead image via Google Maps.