Although food is obviously the main focus of the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry, every once in a while they are presented with the opportunity to branch out beyond food to meet some of the clients’ other needs.

Earlier this month, thanks to a large in-kind donation by Steve Gerendash, Hand Up was able to distribute more than 200 pairs of brand new shoes to the clients at their weekly food distribution in Hillcrest. Shoes ranged from Doc Martin boots to high heels and everything in between.

With the help of our amazing volunteers, Hand Up staff gave each client a choice of two different styles of shoes in their size and let them select a pair. One client, after putting on his brand new tennis shoes, could not control the urge to dance!

What was truly touching about the shoe distribution–besides just meeting the clients’ basic needs–was being able to restore a little dignity to their everyday lives. A child starting the school year with a new pair of shoes, or a person being able to wear nice dress shoes to a job interview can instill confidence that will hopefully last the life of the shoes and beyond.

A heart-warming story crossed my desk today, and I couldn’t wait to share it with all of you.  It’s a story of five young children who came together to make a difference, truly displaying the spirit of tikkun olam along the way.

It all started when their parents took them to the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry to experience volunteerism.  That day, Isabelle, Rachel, Blanche, Abigail, and Hannah—all aged 8 and under—sorted cans, boxes, and bags to put together food packages for 400 families.  The children enjoyed it so much that they asked their parents to bring them back the next week.  They also learned that monetary donations help the Pantry a great deal—for example, just $.19 can buy a can of soup.  So they came up with a plan.

They held a summer-long bake sale with the goal of raising $100 (if you’re doing the math, that’s 526 cans of soup).  With the help of their moms, they used social media and email to advertise the sale.  Their friends and families placed orders for their favorite treats (with ingredients donated by the children’s families), and made their checks out to the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry.  The girls and their moms baked all summer and not only did they reach their goal of $100—they raised $623!  They found the experience to be so fun and rewarding that they can’t wait to do it again next year— it’s going to be their new summer tradition.

I’d like to recognize these children for their selfless actions and thank them for their amazing and generous contribution to the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry.  This donation will go a long way in feeding San Diego’s hungry.  We look forward to hearing about you next summer!

As we begin our year-end fundraising push, Charity Navigator—America’s largest independent charity evaluator—has launched their 2.0 rating system that measures each nonprofit’s Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency. Profile pages have a new appearance and more information, but one thing that remains the same: our 4-star rating (Read our profile). A new graph on the overall page clearly illustrates that our 4-star rating is almost a perfect score. This is an accomplishment that we are very proud of. We are in special company—only 8% of nonprofits reviewed have received a 4-star rating for four consecutive years.

Our consistency is even more impressive when you consider that as a result of the new scoring system:

• Half of the nearly 5,500 charities rated by Charity Navigator received new star ratings
• 19% of the charities’ star ratings decreased, including such marquee names as Harvard University, NYU, Princeton, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• With the bar set higher, the total number of 4-star charities decreased by 20%

Take a look at our profile and feel proud and confident in your support. Our Charity Navigator rating is one piece of the story—I also invite you to look at our Friends of the Family Campaign so you can see the impact of Jewish Family Service and your support. Thanks to the generosity of the community, JFS makes sure no one is alone when they’re in crisis. Solving problems, saving lives, restoring hope—thanks to you.

L’Shanah Tovah!

It’s getting colder and Pumpkin Spice lattes are back at Starbuck’s—fall is definitely around the corner. I figured now is a good time to remind you of our annual United Run for the Hungry 5K/10K on Thanksgiving morning. This event plays an important role in providing food for thousands of hungry families in our community. And it is a great, meaningful way to kick-off the holiday.

When you think of San Diego’s hungry, you probably think of those living on the streets or in shelters. But did you ever consider that your neighbor may be hungry? San Diego’s hungry are all around us. The vast majority are in households with an employed adult. Many are children and senior citizens living on fixed incomes below poverty level.

United Run for the Hungry benefits the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank and our very own Foodmobile, which delivers hot, kosher meals to homebound older adults and younger homebound disabled adults.

With 3,900 participants last year, United Run for the Hungry continues to grow because of its great mix of ingredients: an awesome course starting at Petco Park and traveling through the Gaslamp and East Village, fun entertainment, tasty refreshments, and the cause. Be a part of the action on Thanksgiving and show San Diego’s hungry you care. Round up your family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and classmates and register as a team. Many come in costume. It is a fun and festive event! Teams of 20 or more who turn in their entries by Friday, October 28 will have their team name printed on the back of their event shirts. Have a four-legged friend who loves to run? Dogs are welcome too!

For more information, visit www.unitedrunforthehungry.org or register now by clicking here.

2010 United Run for the Hungry participants

I have great news to share! Our On the Go program, which provides transportation solutions for older adults, set a goal of recruiting 75 volunteer drivers between January 1-September 1, 2011. Not only did we reach our goal—we exceeded it with 79 new volunteer drivers! These new volunteers will provide individual rides through the Rides & Smiles® component of On the Go.

Reaching this type of goal takes some serious team work. The JFS marketing, volunteers services, and On the Go Rides & Smiles® folks clearly did a great job. But what’s really amazing is that the majority of our new volunteers were recruited by current volunteers. They know that their experience is making a difference in the lives of others and are appreciated by JFS. The top 5 current volunteer recruiters are: Gayle Costanzo, Glen Farber, Beverlee Greene, Gloria Solstad, and James Durbin. These volunteers enjoy their experience with JFS so much they even recruited their spouses and family. This, to us, is an exceptionally wonderful compliment. As we say in our marketing material, “Volunteers are the heart of JFS.”

JFS was visited by a group of high school students from the Philanthropy Leadership in Training program. For the third year in a row, this group, organized by the Jewish Community Foundation (JCF) in conjunction with the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center (JCC), stopped by JFS as part of a week-long camp devoted to fostering philanthropy. According to Gail Littman, VP of JCF’s Endowments and Communications, “They are trying to learn how to give strategically and wisely. They visit different sites and ask questions trying to decide which charity or charities they will give to at the end of the week.” The students took a tour of our Turk Family Center and learned about the different programs at JFS, such as the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry, and how these programs impact the community. It’s good to see the next generation of socially responsible leaders step up.

Yesterday, long-time Care Manager, Teri Wilner, retired after eight years of dedicated service to JFS’s Serving Older Holocaust Survivors (SOS) program.  According to Teri, “This was not just a job. It was my love, passion, and caring. I came in thinking I would be educating these Survivors about life and coping, but they ended teaching me. It was time to retire, but so hard to give up.”

Teri represents the committed and truly compassionate Care Managers working at JFS every day. They touch so many lives, not only providing clients with companionship and the essentials to survive, but doing it in such a way as to preserve their dignity. On behalf of everyone at JFS, thank you Teri for your years of care and service to our community.

Teri Wilner (center) celebrates her retirement with attendees of the Serving Older Holocaust Survivors (SOS) Copley Café.

Many families face tough financial choices when making higher education decisions for their children. Dr. Robert Rubenstein saw the struggle of parents and wanted to help. He came to us with a proposal to aid those San Diego Jewish families struggling to afford higher education. Together, we created the Rubenstein Family Scholarship. Those of you attending last year’s Gala saw Dr. Rubenstein’s passion in helping these Jewish students with the promise that they actively give back to the community through service.

Since its start in 2009, the Rubenstein Family Scholarship Program has awarded 35 scholarships totaling almost $65,000 to deserving high school graduates and college students. Dr. Rubenstein’s generous donations have helped students attend SDSU, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, Berklee College of Music, University of Oregon, University of Arizona, American Jewish University, Wesleyan University, Azusa Pacific University, Palamar College, Chapman University, and Santa Barbara City College.

As we race through summer, I want to make sure everyone is aware of this great program. Jewish Family Service is now accepting college and vocational school scholarship applications for the 2012 Spring Semester/3rd & 4th Quarters. Rubenstein Family Scholarships, which range up to $2,500, help with tuition, books, and school supplies. Find out more about the Rubenstein Family Scholarship program at www.jfssd.org/scholarship.

Let me tell you about a remarkable young man, Daniel Saloner. Daniel just celebrated his Bar Mitzvah, and his mitzvah project centered around helping Holocaust Survivors by volunteering at JFS’s Serving Older Holocaust Survivors (SOS) program.  Impacted by the experience, Daniel, who attends San Diego Jewish Academy, sold wrist bands of his favorite soccer teams to family, classmates, and friends to raise money for SOS. He raised $1,000 from these efforts and then matched it with another $1,000 from Bar Mitzvah gifts.

Daniel wants to continue working with Holocaust Survivors. His generosity with his time and financial contributions are truly remarkable. They serve as a wonderful illustration that we can all do a little more to help others in need when we personalize a cause. Along these lines, I’d like to introduce our Personal Campaign page. It allows us to celebrate personal events like Bar Mitzvahs or honor loved ones and raise money toward the community we care about. Read more at www.jfssd.org/personal. As we learn from Daniel, we all share a role in Tikkun Olam.

Thank you to everyone who made this Thursday, June 16, Ruby Schulman Memorial Golf Tournament such a smashing success. We welcomed 125 attendees, and together raised almost $75,000 to support Jewish Family Service’s many necessary community services and programs. Congratulations to the first place team of the tournament: Steve Bee, Josh Finkenberg, John Mills, and Scotty Patel! Second place went to Brett Feuerstein, Michael Feuerstein, Scott Holtgrieve and Andrew Gordon. The Women’s Longest Drive was hit by Tara Riley and the Men’s Longest  Drive  went to Mike Carpenter. Greg Oggell hit Closest to Pin and Scott Wild clinched the Putting contest. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the day was at the dinner ceremony when everyone in attendance gave Ben Schulman a standing ovation for his efforts in making this event a reality.

Click here to see more pictures of the tournament>>