Karlie Kloss, Christian Siriano and Brooke Shields helped Citymeals on Wheels celebrate its 38th annual Power Lunch at the Plaza Hotel on Wednesday.
ABC “20/20” cohost and Citymeals on Wheels board member Deborah Roberts warmed up the crowd as the event’s emcee. She spoke of the increasing demand for financial support, as food insecurity has increasingly become an issue with elder New Yorkers. The organization’s chief executive officer Beth Shapiro reinforced that point by highlighting how the suspension of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown and raising food prices have contributed to the need for Citymeals on Wheels services.
To date, Citymeals on Wheels has delivered 72 million meals to 22,000 people in the five boroughs of New York City.
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The event honored WWD, Robb Report and their parent company Penske Media Corp. for their dedicated support via time, efforts and resources to the nonprofit’s mission to end elder hunger. In addition, Kasirer’s chief executive officer Suri Kasirer received the Joan H. Weill Impact award.
Natalie Massenet, Lizzie Tisch, Samantha Boardman, Claire Paull, Leigh Lezark, Kathleen Turner, Katherine Gage Boulud and Daniel Boulud, Barbara Tober, Margo Nederlander and Derek Blasberg were among the guests.
Joined on stage by Fairchild Media Group’s chief executive officer Amanda Smith and Robb Report president Luke Bahrenburg, PMC vice chairman Gerry Byrne spoke of how giving back represents “what we do” at Penske Media, which also owns Variety, Rolling Stone, SXSW, Dick Clark Productions, the Golden Globes and other entities. Byrne, who is a Citymeals on Wheels board member and a veteran, mentioned making food deliveries for the organization to veterans who are shut-ins. He also spoke of the connectivity that people who are facing food insecurity feel through Citymeals on Wheels.
Kasirer’s CEO Suri Kasirer received the Joan H. Weill Impact award from Jonathan Tisch, who spoke of his father Bob’s deep involvement with the organization decades ago. Working with fellow cofounders Gael Greene and the famed chef James Beard in 1981, the elder Tisch raised about $35,000 and was able to deliver 6,000 meals. As a longtime board member, Tisch immediately saw an opportunity to help those in need.
Giving additional meaning to Wednesday’s power lunch, Jonathan Tisch recalled how when New York City was going through a financial crisis in the 1970s, his father invited power players like Felix Rohatyn and Sandy Weil to breakfast at the Regency Hotel to try to figure things out, which is how the term “power breakfast” came to be. “My father made it very easy for himself. He lived at the hotel, and he only had to take the elevator,” adding that others had “to schlepp” there from wherever they lived.
Explaining how 38 years ago, when Weil’s wife Joan was a board member of Citymeals on Wheels, she decided that a women’s event for Citymeals on Wheels was in order, “if all these males are coming together to have breakfast at the Regency. Hence, the start of the power lunch.” As a sign of the organization’s prowess at fundraising, Tisch said the one twist for men to attend the event many years ago was that they had to write a $10,000 check. “This event is 38 years old. I have been coming for 38 years. It has cost me a lot of money,” Tisch said.
In presenting the award to Kasirer, Tisch said she started a lobbying group in a studio apartment in 1997, which has led to the leading consulting and lobbying firm in the U.S. Informing the crowd that Citymeals was the first board that she ever joined, Kasirer spoke movingly about her father, who was the only member of his family to survive Birkenau, for providing for his own family and valuing food and how it unites people. In closing, she reminded guests that one meal a day is not enough for those in need and accepted the award in memory of her father and everything he taught her about kindness and being humble.
