Colel Chabad will distribute food stamps to an additional 30,000 families living below the poverty line, as approved by Israel’s Ministry of Welfare, in order to provide security for Israel’s most at-risk population during the global fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to the organization, preference will be given to single parent families, those with at-risk or special needs children, low-functioning parents who have expressed difficulty at home and others based on the discretion of social-work case managers.
“These are in addition to the 10,800 families around the country (in 48 municipalities) who are supported by the National Food Security Initiative all year round, who are continuing to get their regular support of food and staples,” noted the organization.
In partnership with nonprofit Keren LeYedidut, home food deliveries to the elderly, which includes dry goods, matzah and produce, have increased from 2,700 deliveries to 7,000.
For the upcoming Passover holiday, Colel Chabad—Israel’s longest running social-service organization, operating since 1788—will deliver 2,000 Seder Kits to families who have in the past participated in one of Colel Chabad’s communal Passover seders. Each kit, said the organization, can feed five people and includes full meals, disposable tableware, matzah, wine and a Haggadah.
“This crisis has affected each and every one of us, but has had the biggest impact on the elderly and the needy, who already struggle to feed their families during the even the best of times,” said Rabbi Mendy Blau, Israel director of Colel Chabad, in a press release.
“We have faced enormous challenges as a nation in the past, and we must do our best to come together on behalf of those who are struggling to put food on the table,” he maintained.