Passover and food insecurity: East Hills JCC and Met Council provide Long Islanders groceries
Judy Crabtree, of Huntington, with completed packs of food at the Sid Jacobson JCC Annex in East Hills on Tuesday. Credit: Rick Kopstein
A New York City-based Jewish charity and an East Hills Jewish Community Center have joined forces this week to help Jewish families on Long Island struggling with food insecurity by providing them with groceries to celebrate the Passover next month.
Officials from the charity, the Met Council, were on hand Tuesday at the Sid Jacobson JCC, as JCC volunteers began packaging the food provided by the council that will be delivered to families throughout the week for kosher meals. The holiday, which begins April 12, commemorates the story of the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt, a story told in the Book of Exodus.
Officials talked of the expense among the food insecure of meeting kosher requirements for Passover.
Susan Berman, the JCC's associate executive director of community engagement, said: "We always say that food insecurity doesn’t look the way we think it does. It’s anybody in any ZIP code. ... It really runs the gamut."
Even if a Jewish family keeps kosher throughout the year, "for Passover, it has to be even more kosher," said Hannah Lupien, managing director of food programs at the Met Council. "Passover is a particularly difficult time because everything in your pantry, everything in your kitchen at home has to be put aside, locked up, that's not kosher for Passover. And you have to buy all new: sugar, salt, pepper — everything has to be turned over to a Passover product," pointing to special labeling on the Met Council groceries designating them kosher for Passover specifically.
"So if you don't have that extra money to spend, if you were just making ends meet the other weeks of the year, this might be a week when you have a really, really difficult time," Lupien said in an interview at the Sid Jacobson JCC.
Sid Jacobson JCC, one of the Met Council's 185 distribution sites, will distribute the Passover groceries to about 400 Long Islanders. The council said its overall distribution would help about 250,000 people across the metro region.
Tuesday, JCC volunteers packed bags for JCC's clients as well as clients of three kosher food pantries nearby, officials said. The groceries are scheduled to be delivered to families beginning Wednesday and through early next week, said Berman.
The Met Council's expansion onto Long Island, which occurred during the pandemic, was aided by financial contributions from the Cooper Foundation, a Long Island-based family foundation. Todd Cooper and his nephew Brett Cooper were at Tuesday's event. While he lives in Manhattan now, Todd Cooper said he grew up "right around the corner" from the JCC.
"We're a Long Island family and we care about what the council does and we wanted to help" with its expansion to the Island, Todd Cooper said.
Lupien said the families will be getting a frozen kosher chicken, eggs — the price of which has gotten "astronomically expensive" — as well as fresh produce. "And then they're getting all the kind of dry goods that are kosher for Passover, things like grape juice and matzah, which are important for celebrating the holiday. But then other traditional foods that people will eat on the holiday, like macaroons. ... There's other things like gefilte fish and jars of traditional Passover food ... staples."
A New York City-based Jewish charity and an East Hills Jewish Community Center have joined forces this week to help Jewish families on Long Island struggling with food insecurity by providing them with groceries to celebrate the Passover next month.
Officials from the charity, the Met Council, were on hand Tuesday at the Sid Jacobson JCC, as JCC volunteers began packaging the food provided by the council that will be delivered to families throughout the week for kosher meals. The holiday, which begins April 12, commemorates the story of the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt, a story told in the Book of Exodus.
Officials talked of the expense among the food insecure of meeting kosher requirements for Passover.
Susan Berman, the JCC's associate executive director of community engagement, said: "We always say that food insecurity doesn’t look the way we think it does. It’s anybody in any ZIP code. ... It really runs the gamut."
Even if a Jewish family keeps kosher throughout the year, "for Passover, it has to be even more kosher," said Hannah Lupien, managing director of food programs at the Met Council. "Passover is a particularly difficult time because everything in your pantry, everything in your kitchen at home has to be put aside, locked up, that's not kosher for Passover. And you have to buy all new: sugar, salt, pepper — everything has to be turned over to a Passover product," pointing to special labeling on the Met Council groceries designating them kosher for Passover specifically.
"So if you don't have that extra money to spend, if you were just making ends meet the other weeks of the year, this might be a week when you have a really, really difficult time," Lupien said in an interview at the Sid Jacobson JCC.
Sid Jacobson JCC, one of the Met Council's 185 distribution sites, will distribute the Passover groceries to about 400 Long Islanders. The council said its overall distribution would help about 250,000 people across the metro region.
Tuesday, JCC volunteers packed bags for JCC's clients as well as clients of three kosher food pantries nearby, officials said. The groceries are scheduled to be delivered to families beginning Wednesday and through early next week, said Berman.
The Met Council's expansion onto Long Island, which occurred during the pandemic, was aided by financial contributions from the Cooper Foundation, a Long Island-based family foundation. Todd Cooper and his nephew Brett Cooper were at Tuesday's event. While he lives in Manhattan now, Todd Cooper said he grew up "right around the corner" from the JCC.
"We're a Long Island family and we care about what the council does and we wanted to help" with its expansion to the Island, Todd Cooper said.
Lupien said the families will be getting a frozen kosher chicken, eggs — the price of which has gotten "astronomically expensive" — as well as fresh produce. "And then they're getting all the kind of dry goods that are kosher for Passover, things like grape juice and matzah, which are important for celebrating the holiday. But then other traditional foods that people will eat on the holiday, like macaroons. ... There's other things like gefilte fish and jars of traditional Passover food ... staples."
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