Providing free healthy meals to the elderly might seem like a small step but it allows them to stay in their homes longer, thus enhancing their autonomy and, ultimately, their freedom.

That’s the opinion of Jose Luis Sanchez, a manager at Citymeals on Wheels, which ensures that homebound senior citizens in New York City never lack food or human company.

United Nations staff volunteered with the organization this Monday in observance of Nelson Mandela International Day.

Mr Sanchez said he admired Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013, because the former South African President recognized everybody’s “obligation to enhance the liberty and freedoms of others.”

Deganit Perez asked Mr Sanchez why volunteering is at the heart of Citymeals on Wheels’s work.

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