WHO WE ARE
For over 60 years, the US network of Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly (LBFE) has been unified in its mission to support older adults experiencing isolation and loneliness and to recognize the value of friendship.
In New York, LBFE has been serving elderly New Yorkers in a spirit of friendship since 2016.
Our grassroots efforts started in November 2016 in Brooklyn with our first-holiday event. During Thanksgiving week, a team of 7 volunteers delivered 20 Thanksgiving care packages with flowers and hand-written cards to 20 homebound elders affected by social isolation.
One month later, we delivered 50 Christmas gift baskets and made in-person visits to 50 elderly recipients. This community effort was made possible by 21 volunteers and drivers, bringing with them holiday cheers and much-needed companionship.
Since then, thanks to the support and generosity of over 350 volunteers and community partners, LBFE has conducted 5,000 friendly visits and made 10,000 phone calls to 300 elderly New Yorkers in need of companionship and advocacy.
Such friendly visits are made through our monthly Friendship and Flowers Visiting Program, Birthday Visiting Program, and 1-1 Friendly Visiting Program. Our Phone Companionship Program was launched in 2020 in response to the pandemic, providing our elderly friends additional social support over the phone on a weekly basis.
Since 2018, a special group of women from Ebenezer Methodist church in Brooklyn has fulfilled a Holiday tradition by cooking a mouthwatering meal before Thanksgiving. LBFE has been the recipient of such meals and delivers them to our elder friends who would otherwise spend this day alone.
Our friendly visiting programs are now offered in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.
Thanks to a caring community of volunteers, we are building lasting friendships with isolated elders in NYC, showing them they are remembered, seen, heard, and loved.
Will you join us in that mission, making this world a kinder place to grow older?
Contact person:
Jérôme Michaux | NYC Expansion Site Coordinator
LBFE NYC Expansion Site
littlebrothersnyc@gmail.com | Tel: (718) 395-5722
OUR MISSION
Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly is a national network of non-profit, volunteer-based organizations committed to relieving isolation and loneliness among older adults. We offer people of goodwill the opportunity to join the elderly in friendship and celebration of life.
OUR MOTTO
Our motto, “Flowers before Bread,” expresses our belief that in addition to basic life necessities, everyone has a strong need for love, beauty, dignity and the social interactions that make life worth living.
OUR HISTORY
Little Brothers was founded in Paris in 1946 by French nobleman Armand Marquiset.
After witnessing the suffering and oppression of the elderly in war-ravaged Europe, Marquiset began delivering hot meals and flowers to his elderly neighbors.
The first US chapter started in Chicago in 1959, followed by Cincinnati in 1997. Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly (LBFE) now serves the elderly in Boston, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, San Francisco, and most recently, New York City.
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Armand Marquiset was born on September 29, 1900, in the château of Montguichet near Paris. Thanks to his parents and grandparents he had an agreeable childhood. As a youth, he was shy and not an outstanding student although he was interested in music and studied with Nadia Boulanger.
Early in the 1920s he and his grandmother, Madame de Laumont, visited less well-off families who had lost sons in the war. This was the first time that this young bon vivant was confronted with genuine poverty.
His life from 1920 to 1930 was full of contrasts. In 1925 he returned to his Christian faith and at the same time, hosted regular parties at his splendid villa near Honfleur. On the one hand, he cavorted with Hollywood stars, and on the other, he often visited the monastery Solesmes to pray and reflect.
The death of his grandmother in 1930 gave him a shock that had far-reaching consequences.
He began his humanitarian work by preparing meals for homeless people through Oeuvre de la mie de pain, the “breadcrumbs” Organization. He then founded the organization Pour que l’esprit vive (That the Spirit shall Live) in support of unemployed artists. He also founded les Amis de la banlieue (The Friends of the Suburbs) to assist the poor children of the Parisian suburbs.
However, Armand Marquiset longed for a larger organization that would encompass all of his charitable activities. Gradually the idea of “petits frères” took shape in his mind. In Paris on July 7, 1939, while at prayer in Notre Dame Cathedral, Marquiset had a mystical vision that gave birth to the Little Brothers: “I saw Little Brothers,” he said, “spreading across the earth igniting, little fires of love.”
But the outbreak of World War II caused him to set these plans aside in the interest of more pressing needs. In 1939 he, therefore, started Servir (To Serve) through which he relocated the children of active soldiers to rural areas. In Lyon, he assisted refugees from Alsace Lorraine through Secours national, and he organized the provision and distribution of food with the help of Lyon-Charitable that can now offer up to 70,000 meals per day. Furthermore, he spread his influence and assistance to Algeria and Spain.
At War’s end, Marquiset returned to the idea of Little Brothers. However, after observing and hearing about post-war conditions in Paris, he decided to focus the effort on elderly people: “1945 was such a precarious time for elderly people… (it)… became the most pressing problem. The war brought them poverty…and it became critical to help them, especially to help them continue living in their homes – the difficult situation presented challenging conditions.” For Marquiset, the spiritual needs of these elderly people, left alone and isolated by the war, were even greater than their material needs.
“The greatest poverty,” he said, “is the poverty of love.”
He decided to help these needy people, calling them his “friends.” He began alone, working out of a rented apartment in a poor section of Paris, visiting the elderly poor. To them, he brought sumptuous meals and flowers, which expressed his affection and love for them. He summed up his mission with the motto, flowers before bread, which reminds us that help for the needy must be animated by love.
Marquiset’s powerful example of love and service soon attracted many followers, both volunteers, and donors. The Little Brothers began to offer beautiful Christmas celebrations, acquired palatial estates where they offered vacations for their elderly friends, and in time founded various branches of the organization within and outside of France.
Armand dedicated himself to this “adventure in love” for 20 years. After a 1964 trip through India during which he became deeply troubled by the extreme poverty he witnessed, he created Les Enfants du Tiers Monde(Children of the Third World). He withdrew from the leadership of Little Brothers to found Frères des Hommes (Brothers of Men), an organization that has spread to many developing countries on three continents.
In 1969, a heart attack caused him to give up leadership of Frères des Hommes. This event, however, did not prevent him from founding yet another charitable organization, Frères du ciel et de la Terre (Brothers of Heaven and Earth) in 1972, with the mission of helping homeless people.
Up until his death on July 14, 1981, in Burtonport, Ireland, he continued to involve himself with his fellow mankind.
