Holiday meals in Nassau County: Family & Children's Association volunteers make special deliveries to seniors

The first rule of the East Meadow breakfast club: No Thursday doctor’s appointments.

Sadie Lloyd, 94, and her senior citizen crew clear their schedules each week to meet for a 9 a.m. breakfast at the Apollo diner in East Meadow. It’s a comfort for the longtime Hempstead resident whose entire family lives in the Midwest.

Lloyd cared for her husband, afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, until his death in 2011. Since then, she has lived alone in the couple's longtime home.

On Sunday, she was paid a visit by volunteers with the Garden City-based Family & Children’s Association, also known as FCA. She was among 120 seniors from across Nassau County the volunteers visited to deliver reheatable holiday meals and gift boxes.

"I don’t have any family here except for [Family & Children’s Association]," Lloyd told Newsday after the volunteers arrived at her front door with a reheatable meal, like the others, complete with turkey, stuffing, vegetables, gravy, cranberry sauce, a roll, salad, a slice of apple pie, a pack of cookies and a gift.

FCA is a nonprofit organization that connects seniors, children and families with health, educational and other services. It’s a "one stop shop" for about 10,000 seniors on Long Island, most of whom qualify for Medicaid, according to Lisa Stern, assistant vice president of FCA’s Senior and Adult Services division.

About 16 case managers support more than 600 homebound seniors on a regular basis, helping them manage prescriptions, get groceries, learn new technology and access mental health support.

The organization, which includes a client that is 102, is funded by Nassau County and the state Office for the Aging, according to Stern.

The holiday season meal deliveries began last December when Tom and Susanne LoFaso, of Farmingdale, and other family members, brought meals to 25 seniors through FCA.

"I would’ve never thought this would get so big so quickly, and I see it getting larger in the years to come," said Tom LoFaso, who also works for the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, where he investigates insurance fraud and abuse.

About 20 volunteer drivers, lined up outside the Bristal Assisted Living in Jericho on Sunday morning, filling their vehicles with bags of food and boxes of gifts for an afternoon of deliveries to seniors — many of whom live alone.

When it was her turn for a meal and a gift, Lloyd sat inside her Hempstead home, beside her Christmas tree adorned with rainbow lights and silver tinsel icicles. She carefully unwrapped a package containing a fleece blanket, a handwritten card from grade-schoolers, gloves, Martinelli’s sparkling cider and other gifts from the LoFaso family.

"My husband used to love these," she said, pulling out a packet of Walker's shortbread cookies. "They were so expensive, but we didn’t care. We used to buy a little box."

Lloyd’s 77-year-old son, grandkids and family pleaded with her to move back to the Midwest after she survived a heart attack in October.

"But this is home," she said. "I’ve been here since 1962."

With her husband gone and no remaining family nearby, FCA has become her support system, she said.

It was an FCA volunteer who signed Lloyd out of the hospital after her heart attack, brought her food when she couldn’t cook afterward, and another who replenished the heating oil in her house on a cold day.

While she doesn’t have plans for Christmas, and having an irregular heartbeat prevents her "long-range planning," Lloyd, who said she's not a picky eater, hopes the breakfast club will visit her for a potluck on New Year’s Day.

"The only thing I don’t like to eat is olives," she said.