Tony and Arlene Urbanski

Since day one, Arlene and Tony Urbanski supported the founder of Caring for Friends, Rita Ungaro-Schiavone. They worked around the clock day in and day out to help their friend feed the hungry. In the 50 years since its founding, they have visited hundreds of clients throughout the Philadelphia area. Some for just weeks, and some for years. It didn’t matter where their clients lived, they made the commitment to help those in need in rough neighborhoods that no one else wanted to go to, like Kensington and Allegheny.

“I’m blessed — I don’t feel like anyone should be lonely or hungry,” Arlene said. “It’s a simple thing, when you make your dinner tonight, take a serving, put it in a tray, and drop it off – it’s doing what you already do every day. You cook an extra meal for someone who doesn’t
have one.”

Why do they do it? “You didn’t say no to ‘Saint Rita’,” Arlene joked. But once they started, they came to understand that sometimes they were the only people these homebound clients had for company. “It’s great just to be able to talk to them. They don’t want you to leave, they want you to stay there. You get to know them.” Tony explained, “The 97-year-old we visit now always tells us “we’re family.”

This commitment is what earned them the 2021 Rita Ungaro-Schiavone Lifetime Achievement Award for volunteering.

You, too, can make a difference in someone’s life by making meals and/or delivering them.
Sign up today at caringforfriends.org/volunteer/