If you and your family should happen to fall upon hard times, Jewish Family Services is here to provide financial and emotional support.

I have been a volunteer at the Kosher Food Bank and a member of the Tikvah Committee (that helps in allocating assistance to the vulnerable and disadvantaged in our Jewish community) for the past 8 years. I want to tell you that this commitment and dedication to Jewish Family Services is driven by the clients’ stories I have been exposed to and the clients I have had the opportunity to meet.

There is the story of the single male, diagnosed with cancer and on chemotherapy. He can hardly keep his food down. He is living mostly on the supplement Ensure, but can manage to eat meat and bread. At the Kosher Food Bank we give him extra of what he can eat, and the Tikvah Committee provides him with food vouchers so he can purchase Ensure.

There is the family with six kids. They need Shabbat candles, access to Bar Mitzvah lessons. They need shampoo. I give them what I can from the Kosher Food Bank and encourage them to speak with their social worker.

A client, who is a regular, doesn’t arrive. I have known this person for many years and rarely does he miss a distribution of food. This client is woven into my monthly commitment to the Kosher Food Bank and I am concerned for his well being.

I stay in touch with the JFS social workers who are dedicated to helping improve the quality of life of their clients. I check up on those I know who are struggling and ask how they are. They too have become a part of my life.