From Our CEO: Fighting hunger on Passover

This coming week marks an important time for people of many faiths, as we celebrate the joyous holidays of Passover, Easter, and Ramadan. Passover, in particular, is a holiday where family gathers together to eat a large meal and celebrate. Unfortunately, we know there are those in our community who cannot afford to put food on the table. An ancient Jewish custom, kimcha d’pischa, reminds us of the importance of giving tzedakah, or charity, to those in need so all will be able to celebrate Passover. As we say at the beginning of the Passover Seder: All who are hungry, let them come and eat. All who are in need, let them come celebrate Passover with us. 

That’s why during this season, we partner with other organizations to ensure that no one goes hungry during the holidays. We recently joined with the Notre Dame Club of Staten Island’s Bread of Life Food Drive, which collects food at schools and other public locations across the Island. The JCC is proud to participate in this food drive and is honored to receive the Kosher food that is collected for our Kosher Food Pantry.
Last week, we also hosted our own Passover Food Pantry Distributions, in partnership with MetCouncil and COJO of Staten Island. On Thursday, were joined by volunteers from the JCC Kosher Food Pantry, MetCouncil, the Pride Center of Staten Island, Latter Day Saints, Amazon, and Empire State Bank worked throughout the day in the cold to create food packages for the less fortunate. They were joined by Borough President Vito Fossella, Council Member David Carr, and representatives from the offices of Senator Lanza, Senator Scarcella-Spanton, Assembly Member Tannousis, DA McMahon, and Council Member Borelli. Through these partnerships, we were able to distribute food to over 300 families on Staten Island and make sure that no one has an empty table this Passover.​

We know there are still so many families hurting in our community, including Ukrainian refugees who have settled here. The JCC continues to work with these refugees to help them learn English, obtain benefits, and find employment. We are also working to expand our camp scholarship program to allow more Ukrainian children to be able to attend camp. The JCC will continue to be here for them to help as long as they need.

As we see needs in our community growing, we are continuing to expand our social services offerings to help. I am thrilled to announce that this spring, we will launch our Digital Food Pantry. This will allow our Food Pantry clients to pick out their food online, as they would if they were ordering from a delivery app. Our Food Pantry staff and volunteers will then pack up the items to be picked up. Our goal is to make shopping in our food pantry easier for our clients. We have some other fun surprises planned, so stay tuned for more details on the launch later this spring!

As we celebrate the beginning of spring and the holidays, I hope you get a chance to spend time with your loved ones and enjoy the season. On behalf of our JCC family, I wish you a happy holiday season.
-Orit Lender, CEO