![\"Jeremy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Jeremy-Kaplan.jpeg\" "\\"Jeremy")
Jeremy Kaplan is the CEO of Encore Community Services.(\u00a9 Zachary Stewart)<\/p>\n
Jeremy Kaplan is the CEO of Encore Community Services.
(\u00a9 Zachary Stewart)<\/p>\n
In theory, New York City is an excellent place to retire: Older New Yorkers can access world-class restaurants, museums, and theaters without ever having to own an automobile. But in practice it can be a different story\u2014living in a fifth-floor walk-up with creaky knees, navigating sidewalks full of distracted bicycle deliverymen, and surviving on a fixed income in one of the most expensive cities on earth, where the price of everything only ever goes up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of meals, the cost of groceries, the cost of everything is skyrocketing,\u201d said Jeremy Kaplan, CEO of Encore Community Services, a not-for-profit focused on the needs of senior citizens living in the theater district and Hell\u2019s Kitchen. \u201cWe hear all the time about people struggling to either pay for food or rent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Food has long been at the center of Encore\u2019s mission. Father George Moore founded the organization in 1977 in the basement of St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church (known colloquially as \u201cthe actors\u2019 chapel\u201d) on 49th Street, partially as a solution to the growing homelessness crisis in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Saint_Malachys_Roman_Catholic_Church_239_W_49_St_jeh.jpg\" "\\"Saint")
St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church is on 49th Street. The door to the far right leads to Encore\u2019s original space.
(\u00a9 JIm Henderson)<\/p>\n
\u201cFather Moore, Gerald Schoenfeld [longtime chairman of the Shubert Organization], and a couple other neighborhood folks got together at Sardi\u2019s and had a conversation about what to do,\u201d said Kaplan. \u201cThey decided to convert the lower level of St. Malachy\u2019s into a soup kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sisters Lillian McNamara and Elizabeth Hasselt, Dominican nuns from the Bronx, were brought in to lead the charge. \u201cThey pulled out the pews from the church and sold them for 40 bucks a pop. That became the organization\u2019s first budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the kitchen was open and serving the community they quickly noticed that the guests overwhelmingly skewed older\u2014elders with few resources and dwindling social networks, who desperately needed somewhere to go for a reliable meal.<\/p>\n
Encore has since expanded its services to include housing (200 residents live in two separate facilities), meal deliveries, and other at-home visits. \u201cWe actually have a lot of entertainment union folks who volunteer as friendly visitors,\u201d said Kaplan. \u201cThey commit to six months of visiting an older adult who would otherwise be isolated, and these often become lifelong friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bobby-Freida.jpeg\" "\\"Bobby")
Freida with Bobby Score
(courtesy of Bobby Score)<\/p>\n
Bobby Score, a former stagehand at Lincoln Center who served for many years as Recording-Corresponding Secretary for IATSE Local One (the stagehand\u2019s union), has volunteered as one of those visitors. \u201cI was matched with this unbelievable person named Freida,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThis was during the tail end of COVID and she was 100 years old, so it started as a weekly phone call. But I eventually got to visit her in person and we became very close.\u201d Score has also served on Encore\u2019s board of directors and still liaises with labor unions on behalf of the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always knew that the mission had a lot to do with food insecurity,\u201d Score said about his hands-on experience with Encore. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much arts programming that they do and how that enriches people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The original soup kitchen still serves 20,000 meals a week, according to Kaplan. But it has been rechristened the \u201cAging Through Arts Center,\u201d offering writing workshops, drawing classes, and dance classes, in addition to other cultural activities. This isn\u2019t just a place to get a hot meal. It\u2019s also a place to connect and learn something new. Occasionally, it\u2019s also a place to show off and be entertained.<\/p>\n
![\"Encore](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Encore-Interior.jpeg\" "\\"Encore")
The original Encore Community Services space under St. Malachy Church.
(\u00a9 Zachary Stewart)<\/p>\n
I recently visited the 49th Street home base for the organization\u2019s \u201cTalent is Timeless\u201d event\u2014a talent contest for community members with a grand prize of $600. This is the Theater District, and Kaplan estimates that around a third of the seniors Encore serves have been involved in the arts in some capacity.<\/p>\n
The room was bustling with seniors and volunteers during the lunchtime rush just before showtime\u2014Wednesday at 2pm, naturally. It\u2019s the kind of well-loved community space that feels just a little too small for its needs, with donated supplies cordoned off in a corner and tables and chairs squeezed into every available space; but everyone was making it work and seemed happy to be there.<\/p>\n
A panel of judges, including city council member Carl Wilson, sat in the front row of a makeshift theater Encore staff had created around an elevated platform acting as the stage. Volunteers queued up music as the contestants took the stage to sing, dance, and even perform magic tricks.<\/p>\n
Marjorie Conn made an impression with an original song about her late greyhound dog Frosting, set to the tune of \u201cFrosty the Snowman.\u201d Rhonda Williams brought the wit with her clever \u201cSongwriter\u2019s Blues,\u201d a number she composed in one of Encore\u2019s songwriting classes. And decked out in glittering pinstripes, Jacqueline Pullen gave the audience a bit of Fosse with her one-woman rendition of \u201cAll That Jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Nancy-Simpson.jpeg\" "\\"Nancy")
Nancy Simpson performs \u201cOn the Street Where You Live\u201d as part of Talent is Timeless\u201d at Encore Community Services.
(\u00a9 Zachary Stewart)<\/p>\n
But it was Nancy Simpson\u2019s sweet song-and-dance routine to \u201cOn the Street Where You Live\u201d from My Fair Lady that really won the judges over. I was impressed too. I approached her after the show to congratulate her on her victory and ask her if she had been a performer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still a performer,\u201d she gently corrected me, telling me about her time with the Chattanooga Opera Company, and how she currently sings with four different groups, including the St. Malachy\u2019s choir upstairs. She also teaches ukulele lessons. \u201cThis place is just fabulous,\u201d she beamed. \u201cThere are so many wonderful, nice people. And I\u2019ve made it a priority to give back.\u201d Nancy still has a lot to offer, as do so many seniors living in New York City\u2014but that is not always obvious in a culture ruled by spreadsheets, marketing algorithms, and EBITDA calculations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing in life is social connections and how we take care of each other,\u201d said Kaplan, reflecting on what leading Encore has taught him. \u201cJust having a network, whether it\u2019s biological family, chosen family, friends\u2014that is the key to living a long, healthy life.\u201d<\/p>\n