Mayor of Vilnius Artūras Zuokas Invites Elderly People to Get Back to Cafes

Action „Until We Meet for a Cup of Coffee” will start just before Christmas. Arranged by Municipality of Vilnius this action will make senior citizens to feel special members of the community as from the 23rd of December till the Big Easter Sunday every Sunday, from 2 to 4 o’clock p.m. people with certificates of pensionists will be invited for a cup of coffee or tea free of charge. The initiator of the action, Mayor Artūras Zuokas, said that the idea came because the coming Christmas, which being the biggest celebration of the year, has a tradition of gathering together with friends, relatives and neighbors. As Mayor have noticed that there are not so many elderly people out in cafes and restaurants of Vilnius he decided to offer them the possibility to come back to the active life of the city, to have some time together with their friend out in cafes, to remember their young time. The results of the pool concluded just before the action, showed that low income was not the main reason stopping elderly people from going out. Most of them think that restaurants and cafes are only for young and they are not welcome there. The special poster with the picture of the cup attached to the door or to the window of cafe or restaurant, sponsoring the action, will help them to brake this stereotype. Lithuanian Post (“Lietuvos paštas”) now is delivering to every senior together with the pension Christmas cards with congratulations from Vilnius Mayor and the list of cafes and restaurants were they are welcome to come for the Sunday cup of coffee or tea. 16 the most popular Vilnius restaurants and cafes are taking part in this action: “Ida-Basar”, “Prie parlamento”, “Prie universiteto”, “Ritos slėptuvė”, “Ritos smuklė”, “Žemaičių smuklė”, “Kuba”, “Avilys”, “Da Antonio I”, “Da Antonio III”, “Colosseum”, “Freskos”, “Bix”, “Amerika”, “Baritalia”, “Jazz klubas”, also Lithuanian Post (AB „Lietuvos paštas”), Lithuanian TV.