The mission of WEME, a program of St. Matthew's & St. Timothy's Neighborhood Center, and a meals-on-wheels site and social service agency, is to help improve the quality of life of approximately 500 homebound seniors on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and to help these seniors stay sufficiently independent to remain in their homes.

Description:
WEME provides warm, nutritious meals 6 days per week to our 500 homebound seniors. We have two social workers on staff who assess each potential senior for eligibility for the program and who re-assess each senior's eligibility every six months. Should special problems arise for our clients, our social workers can provide information and referral to outside agencies. WEME also provides volunteer services to our seniors, which include friendly visiting, walking in the neighborhood, escorting seniors on local errands, running errands, reading to the visually impaired, helping learn computer skills, and playing games such as scrabble and cards. Volunteers also serve by making hand made greeting cards to be sent to our seniors in celebration of seasons and holidays, or just to let them know that someone is thinking about them.

History:
WEME was founded in 1973 by a group of Seminary students at Union Theological Seminary, with the goal of reaching out to isolated and/or impoverished seniors citizens. Eleven years later WEME was incorporated into St. Matthew's and St. Timothy's Neighborhood Center as its program for older adults. In 1987 WEME was asked by the Department of Aging to take over the largest feeding program for older adults in NYC. This resulted in the creation of WEME's serving as a Meals-on-Wheels site on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Contact person: Beth Mandelbaum, Coordinator of Volunteers, (212) 874-3750 , ext. 16, (email)
Office fax number: (212) 874-9178

Address:

263 West 86th Street New York, NY 10024 (See a map)

Overall Experience   
I REALLY ENJOYED IT A MIND CHANGING EXPERIENCE

WELL I VOLUNTEER WITH WEME Mainstream Nutrition and Health Center and for me it was the best experience i ever gained and it was an eye opener for me, it made me change my career and now i am going to be a home health aide. i really enjoyed working with a senior i used to volunteer with she was such a loving person to be around with . The volunteer coordinator at WEME Mainstream Nutrition and Health Center is a great person and very dedicated to her work...whenever i get a chance to i will definetely volunteer more. posted by rosi83 on September 22, 2006