September 08, 2008
Sometimes, It Does Take A Village….
Sometimes, it really does take a village to…raise a child, feed a family, put shoes on little feet or buy school supplies for eager students.
We were recently in touch with two people whose actions, we believe, represent the very essence of what the Good People Fund is really all about. They represent a group of neighbors and friends who provide monthly food packages for nine needy families in their Jerusalem neighborhood. All families are vetted by a social worker and all are living in extraordinarily difficult circumstances…a family of 4 children living with their unemployed divorced parent in a 1.5 room apartment; an elderly widow with five adult children, four of whom are handicapped and the fifth now severely handicapped from army service; an Ethiopian family with four children under the age of ten and a parent with a brain tumor…each situation heartbreaking in its own right, one worse than the other.
How does this small group make such a profound difference? They have absolutely no overhead, all purchases, packing and delivery is done by volunteers and all funds collected go to food purchases other than occasionally purchasing gift certificates for a local shoe store when little feet need new shoes for school.
The Good People Fund is providing this group with extra supermarket scrip for upcoming holiday purchases…perhaps the New Year will be better for these nine families. In some way they are blessed to have neighbors who take the mitzvah of lechem l’re’eyvim, feeding hungry people, very seriously.
(See Part II, September 18, 2008)
