All [Music] right.
We out here having a good time. I can't hear you. Having a good time. All right. That's what's that's what's going on. Now, I want to say the only thing is I only see I only saw one person on the dance floor for a little bit. We got a
lot of room here. Don't leave her out there by herself. All right. And we got some good tunes, right? Athen Wilson and friends, right? Yeah. DJ Captain Hess out here. Well, right now we have some guests and
we get to our speakers uh part of the program right now. And so, you know, if there's a lot of people that may help keep this city running, help keep the Age Strong Commission running,
uh, who brought about City Fresh Foods. And so, yeah, you give us a round of applause. City Fresh Foods. Yeah. And, and also, I want to give a round of applause to Ace Age Strong, please. Yeah.
So I also want to bring up someone now very special. She has been wonderful make sure that all these things happen for all of you folks and she's been taking care of of you folks for a long time of our elders and that's the commissioner of a strong Mrs. Emily
Sheay. >> All right thank you Richard. All right, another big round of applause for our CityFresh partners and and I am just so grateful. I'm so grateful for all of you and all that you
do for our communities and I'm so grateful for my age team. So, let's give a big round of applause for the whole age strong team. And um what we know is that our communities are better when we all work
together. And so we're thrilled that you're here today because we also know that keeping you connected, making sure that we have opportunities to get out, to see each other, to stay active, that's what keeps us all healthy.
And we know that our that um it's our partners, right? It's our partners that help us to do all of that. I don't know if folks know what CityFresh does working with Age Strong and our partner Ethos, but they help with the Elder
Nutrition program. So, if you're getting a meal in your house or you're going to a community cafe, there's 40 40 free 40 community cafes throughout the city where you can get a meal for a donation
of $2. Um, so if you're getting a meal on wheel, if you're getting going to a community cafe, CityFresh is a huge huge part of that. Um, so now I want to bring up Sheldon Lloyd. He is the one of the founders of CityFresh. He has worked
with us for many, many years. Um, so he's such a leader in the community around food and nutrition. So please join me in a warm welcome for Sheldon. >> Thank you. Welcome everybody. This is one of my favorite days of the year cuz you guys
give me strength. I look to you especially in these times. And I want to also I really want to thank my team too who's back behind there getting all the meals out to you. Uh so a special thanks for the city team
for putting out all these meals today. Bravo. Bravo. So and this is for you all. So celebrating today, I want you all to celebrate, right? You know, there's a lot of stress out there we're all listening to every day. So this is
celebration. And I want to welcome the mayor who has kept our minds off of things here in this city. Uh she's kept us entertained with a lot of public events and she's keeping a balance so that everybody can
celebrate a lot of free and public events. So, um, and she's our mayor now and our mayor to be. So, um, that's good news, right? Thank goodness. Well, anyway, I guess m not much further
ado, I want to welcome the mayor and thank everybody for being here and coming out so we can keep this going and going and going. Oh, sorry. And also thanks to the band Athena DJ as well. Sorry.
>> Thank you. Thank you so much Sheldon. Good afternoon everyone. You all are a beautiful crowd and I'm so so happy to see you. I see some of my colleagues in elected office who are here. I want to invite them up after their picture. I'll invite them up to
the stage to come and say hello as well. Uh, this is one of my favorite events all year and we're doing it inside this year instead of outside. So, doesn't it feel good to feel warm inside here? Thank you so much to the Melia Cass
Recreation Center, the whole cast team for having us here and for giving us this space. Thank you to Emily Sheay, the best commissioner anywhere in the country taking care of our seniors. and to the entire agong team who work so hard day in and day out. We're really
really grateful to our partners at CityFresh, Sheldon and his entire team who are such a great example of what it means to invest in local businesses who then invest in the local community by coming out and giving back and being involved in everything that we do from
our schools to our elders and everyone in between. And I want to double on the thanks to Miss Athen Wilson and and friends and the DJ and all of those who are making today fun. So I'm here to report that um Meera is 9
months old now. She is she is uh a big girl. She's good eater, good sleeper. She is wearing 24 month clothes now if you can believe. So she doesn't miss a meal. And uh she's
crawling. She's got her two teeth and she rules the roost with her two older brothers. So, uh, she's got a lot of aunties and and uncles in the house all throughout Boston. And I just wanted to say it's been a crazy nine months for my family and me. It started with a trip to
DC that none of us expected or wanted and has continued with campaigning, with raising her, with watching our city grow and develop and and needing to fight back against some of the things that have been threatening our communities, but standing strong for who we are. So, I want to thank my village, our
community, for all that you will do to make sure that all our families have what we need. This is what our event today is about. This is what our programming across every part of our city departments is about. Making Boston home for everyone. Making sure that every generation from our littlests to
our seniors who have built our city and everyone in between have what they need. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart and uh thank you for making Boston who we are. Now, I'm going to pass the mic along so that our electives can say a quick hello. We're joined by our city
council president, Ruthie Luen, city councelor at large, Henry Santana, state representative, John Moran, and we also have I want to I always have so much respect and admiration for those who throw their hat in the ring. And some someone who you all know who's a
candidate for uh city council in this district is Reverend Minard Co Pepper. So, thank you for being with us today as well, Madame President Ritz Luen. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. It's the afternoon, right? I didn't check my watch, but it's good afternoon
now. I'm so happy to be with all of you. Lillian O'Neal, so many of our uh on the pe on people who on whose shoulders I stand. So many of us would not be able to be here without the foundation that you have laid for us. And so when I saw
that there was an ARM block party in Roxberry, I was like, I'mma be there cuz y'all know how to get down. And so we will be on the dance floor together. But I want to thank the entire team here at the cast. I saw Stephanie here earlier. Uh but I want to thank I want to thank Chris. I want to thank Stephanie, the
entire team here at the cast. I want to thank our Indatigable Artrong Commissioner Emily Sheay for all she does. um our fearless mayor and Meera who loves pulling on my hair and all of my colleagues in government. It takes all of us collectively doing this work and
it's a hard time in government, but we're able to do it. Honestly, whenever y'all say, "I'm praying for you," or "I'm rooting for you" or "We got your back." It fills us up with so much more courage to take on the challenges of the day. So, thank you for all the prayers. They go both ways. So, I'm praying for y'all, too. I mean, we're doing
everything we can to make sure that you are able to age with dignity in the city that you have given so much to. So, shout out to Sheldon, shout out to City Fresh, and shout out to everybody. I see our police officers are in the house. Uh they were serving everybody earlier. Thank you for all of your work. Thank
you. I'm going to pass it off to my colleague, my brother in service, Councelor Henry Santana. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Henry Santana. I have the great honor of being one of your atlarge city councilors here, meaning I
represent the entire city. Um, you know, it's just an honor to be here to see so many faces um and people that I know and I think I just want to echo a lot of the words um that the council president, you know, I think as one of the newest um city councilors, you know, there's a lot for me to learn and there's a lot of
people in this room who have invested in me, who continue to teach me and I'm looking to I'm looking forward to continue to learn on this job. So, um it's an honor to represent you all. As you know, my number one priority is our youth. I've already spoken to a few people who said they want to connect me
um to their their grandchild. You know, we want to make sure that our youth are connected to after school program, summer programs um and to jobs. So, please connect to our office. That's our number one priority. It's a it's it's an honor to be here and to represent you all. And I'm going to pass it over to um
state rep. John Moran. >> Thank you, counselor. I'm John Moran. I'm the state representative. I represent uh parts of the south end, lower Roxberry and Dorchester in the city of Boston. I'm so happy to be here and uh Sheldon I thought was in my district, City Fresh Foods, but I'm just
one block away, but he is my neighbor in the south end and I'm so grateful for everything that he's done. Emily uh Commissioner Sheay has done amazing things. So proud to have a new program in my district as well at the Union Methodist Church. Uh and I just want to say that at the state level, we are
focused and collaborating with our city partners in making sure that uh food insecurity uh is a thing of the past. We have some nasty cuts from uh the Washington that are occurring, but we just had a budget meeting yesterday. We
closed out our 25 budget. And I got to tell you, we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure we respect our seniors and our folks who are in uh food insecurity in this state. and we'll continue to fight uh alongside you. Thanks and have a good time today.
God bless you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh Reverend Minard Co Pepper, pastor of the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. And I just want you to know that I am honored to be in your presence today. I've been fighting for you all of my life in District 7 and
I'll continue to fight for you. I ask you to do one thing for me. Keep me in your prayers. God bless you and I'll keep you in mind. >> Amen. >> And I just want to shout out state representative Russell Holmes who had been here but I think he had to >> he right there.
>> Where is he? >> Right. >> Russell. Okay. Give a wave Rep. Holmes. >> Thanks for all that you do as well. Thank you so much everyone and let's have a good time and get on the dance floor. [Music]