With a name that nods to the midday professional gatherings of the 1980s, Citymeals on Wheels’ annual Power Lunch began as a convergence of New York City’s most powerful women—to raise crucial funds for the nonprofit and upend the stereotypical masculine associations with the occasion. Over the last three decades, the scope of the spectacular lunchtime gala has changed, but its mission has remained the same. For the 37th annual Citymeals on Wheels Power Lunch, hosted for a tenth year at the prestigious Plaza Hotel, more than 400 well-heeled attendees together raised $1.5 million for food-insecure older New Yorkers.
This year’s guest list saw stars of stage and screen mingle with culinary and cultural figures, as well as fashion industry innovators. Chef Daniel Boulud, board chair of Citymeals on Wheels, and his wife, Katherine Gage Boulud, were joined by Christine Baranski, Helena Christensen, Kathleen Turner, Kristina O’Neill, Leigh Lezark, Antoni Porowski, Christian Siriano and many more. Derek Blasberg, Samantha Boardman, Margo M. Nederlander, and Lizzie Tisch chaired the event—and ABC News senior correspondent and Citymeals board member Deborah Roberts acted as emcee.
Celebratory guests shifted from the step-and-repeat and arrivals reception to a three-course seated lunch, which crescendoed with The Plaza’s famed “s’mores” of toasted Italian meringue, dark chocolate gelato and graham crumble. Amidst the dining, Nederlander, of the powerhouse theater organization, awarded fellow pioneering Broadway production and ownership company, The Shubert Organization. Blasberg honored Santo Domingo, who delivered an impassioned, powerful speech with a call to action.
“Originally, this was the Women’s Power Lunch. It was always a congregation of women who worked extremely hard for an important cause,” Gage Boulud tells Vogue. “It was one of the first big power luncheons that I ever started attending philanthropically. It will always be so important to me, and it’s so significant to my husband.”
Chef Boulud—hot off the opening of his first steakhouse, NYC’s La Tête d’Or—adds, “I have been supporting Citymeals for more than three decades and I’ve been the co-president for more than a decade. To me, every charity that works toward ending hunger and doing good for the community is important, but Citymeals has always been the one that has such a meaningful impact on people’s lives.” According to a recent survey, 87% of older adults receiving meal support from Citymeals on Wheels said that it allowed them to keep living at home. As older adults now outnumber school-age children in New York City, the need continues to grow.
The Power Lunch is Citymeals’ largest annual fundraiser, and the $1.5 million raised translates to 150,000 meals. The nonprofit has now delivered more than 70,000,000 meals and hopes to end hunger among older New York City adults by 2040. As Siriano tells Vogue en route to our tables, “What Citymeals on Wheel is doing is so important—and they accomplish more during a lunch than you could during the biggest gala ever.”