A few days ago, I met with Scody Hage (J. Scofield Hage), President & CEO of the San Diego Food Bank, to talk about our 11th year of partnership with the Run for the Hungry that takes place every Thanksgiving. Our discussion brought to mind all the ways that JFS deals with the issue of hunger. We have programs that provide food directly, like Foodmobile, our congregate meal sites for older adults, and the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry*, but the reality is that almost every program in the agency addresses and deals with alleviating hunger in some way.

An older adult might come to us to enroll in our On the Go transportation program, only for our program staff to discover from their interactions that the client doesn’t have enough food. An individual might come in for counseling when the therapist discovers they haven’t had a good meal in days. When these situations arise—as they do, often—we make sure that person or family receives supplies from the food pantry for a few meals—immediately. As our case managers will tell you, it’s often difficult to make progress solving other issues until the basic need of food is met.

We also think it’s important to have a case manager present at our food distributions. They talk to the individuals receiving food packages to discover if there are other ways JFS can help them.

This is because at JFS, we evaluate a person’s entire situation. It’s only after we meet a client’s immediate needs that we can begin working on other aspects of their life. Often, many programs within JFS will work together to create a lasting plan to get a client back on their feet. That’s just how we operate—whole person, whole solution.

There’s a term that we have been using a lot more lately—food insecurity. It means experiencing periods where you are uncertain if you will have enough food to meet the needs of your family due to insufficient money or resources. And you don’t have to be homeless to be food insecure: even those working full-time jobs can have difficulty putting food on the table. On average, in California, a person would need to make $26.02 an hour to afford a 2-bedroom unit. (Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2012). Minimum wage is $8 an hour.

In San Diego County, more than 460,000 people are food insecure. That’s unacceptable. No one should go hungry. We’ll continue to do our best to meet people’s needs and give them their lives back, and thank you for your support in helping us carry out this mission.

*Since January 1, 2012:

• The Hand Up Youth Food Pantry served 3,341 people, including 428 military families. It distributed 62,098 pounds of non-perishables, 2,898 pounds of frozen meat and 15,756 pounds of fresh produce.
• Hand Up hosted 37 food drives, yielding 9,494 pounds in donated food.
• Foodmobile distributed 16,818 meals to homebound seniors and disabled homebound adults.
• Our Senior Nutrition Program is on track to serve over 66,000 meals this fiscal year.

Here at JFS, our Thanksgiving tradition is simple: to help as many families as possible to have a Thanksgiving dinner. For years, we have put together Thanksgiving packages filled with food to make the holiday a little brighter for hungry families in our community.

To collect the food for the packages, food drives were held at L3 Communications, Fireman’s Fund Insurance, JFS’s North County office, and the College Avenue Center. The congregation at Temple Solel generously donated 206 packages. Along with these donations, JFS purchased additional food to put together enough meals for more than 600 families.

Packages include canned yams or sweet potatoes, instant mashed potatoes, canned cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie filling, corn bread mix, stuffing mix, shelf-stable pie crust, evaporated milk, and a $10 grocery store gift card to supplement the purchase of a turkey. Packages also include fresh produce like potatoes, yams, celery, and more. We had help putting the packages together, too. In North County, 40 second graders from Urban Discovery Academy assembled 200 packages. At the JFS-Turk Family Center, participants from Girls Give Back and Hand Up Youth Food Pantry assembled 300 packages. Temple Solel assembled their 206 packages as well.

How are the baskets distributed? JFS Case Managers, Social & Wellness Centers, Care Managers, and Counselors identified families in their programs that would benefit by receiving one of these packages and will distribute them individually.

I would like to thank everyone who helped in this endeavor – but it’s not over. We are still collecting donations, and need a lot more to cover the cost of providing Thanksgiving dinner for more than 600 families.  It’s worth it.

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!

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.

We had our annual meeting last week to honor our board of directors, volunteers, and staff, and what a great turnout it was! The awards ceremony featured a stellar, all-female cast:

• Board member Cathy Babin Weil was honored with the Charles Zibbell Board Leadership Award for her tireless work in volunteer engagement at JFS.
• Hand Up Youth Food Pantry Supervisor Shelly Hahne took home the Henrietta Rubenstein Staff Development Award. She has been instrumental in growing our food pantry and providing more than 165,300 pounds of food to San Diego’s hungry this past year.
• Our Jack Stern Volunteer Recognition Award went to three amazing ladies whose dedication to JFS is truly inspiring: Radmila Fulton with the JFS Economic Crisis Response Program, Myrna Reese from our On the Go transportation program for older adults, and Eleonore Lavender with Guiding Adolescent Parents. You can read more about their volunteer work by clicking here.

L to R: Ele Lavender, Lorraine Stern, Myrna Reese & Radmila Fulton

As Board President Steve Levine is stepping down this year, we welcomed Felicia Mandelbaum as our incoming President for 2011-2012. Felicia spoke briefly about her goals for the agency and one comment really stood out to me. Felicia said “We must always be cognizant that we are a people of mitzvah – we need to perform acts of “human kindness” to our people and to the community at large.”  I’m always amazed at the time and effort that our Board Presidents put into the job.  Can’t imagine what our agency would be without them.

Immediate Past President Steve Levine and Current Board President Felicia Mandelbaum

Fern Siegel and Shelly Hahne

I recently received an email from Fern Siegel, a past JFS Board president and a current board member. Fern is the lead volunteer for the “Lose for Good” food drive at her Weight Watchers center and she couldn’t wait to share some great news with me! So far, Fern’s group has collected more than 3,000 pounds in food donations to benefit the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry at JFS. This is Fern’s third year collecting food for Hand Up. Weight Watcher participants are asked to donate food that weighs the equivalent of the pounds they lose each week. Clairemont Center Weight Watcher members lost 5,225 pounds during the “Lose for Good” campaign. Congratulations to all the men and women who lost weight through Weight Watchers and thank you for helping us provide much needed food for hungry San Diegans!

If you‘d like to learn how to lose weight and keep it off, find a meeting at www.weightwatchers.com.

If your business is interested in helping the San Diego community by hosting a food drive, please contact Josh Cohen, Food Drive Specialist for the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry, at (858) 637-3356 or joshco@jfssd.org.

Last night we hosted a reception at the Vi at La Jolla Village to kick off the 2010 Friends of the Family Campaign. More than 100 people attended! After a welcome speech from myself and Board President Steve Levine, two guest speakers told their personal stories of how JFS has changed their lives.

Sarah Linssen

Sara Linssen, a member of the 2010-2011 Hand Up Youth Food Pantry Student Executive Committee, talked about how her vision of hunger changed dramatically after she became involved with Hand Up. While she once thought that “hunger” meant sick children in Africa or a homeless man on the street, she was shocked to see more than 150 military families waiting in line for food at one of our military distribution sites. “With over 730,000 people in San Diego County experiencing food insecurity, it’s people like these who are the true face of hunger. It’s families who are trying desperately to make ends meet but unfortunately failing. It’s families in which parents have multiple low-paying jobs, but it’s just not enough.” Sara voiced her pride in Hand Up, saying that the organization has given her the chance to inspire others and to teach people in the community what she has learned.

Our other guest speaker was Karen Crawford, a current Friend of the Family donor and mother of two young boys, Ryan and Jake. When their father passed away, Karen, at the urging of a friend, decided to investigate the Jewish BIGPals program to provide a male role model for her sons. “It was one of the best decisions I made..the Jewish BIGPals program has had a profound impact on my sons’ lives.”

It’s stories like these that make me proud of our accomplishments at Jewish Family Service. Click here to see our 2010 Friends of the Family Campaign and read more articles from the people we have helped.

And I would like to again thank the Vi at La Jolla Village for an absolutely beautiful setting for our event. The food was delicious and their generosity was more than we could have imagined! Click here to visit the Vi’s website.

Friend of the Family Co-Chairs Ronnie Diamond and Ron Zollman

Congressman Brian Bilbray, representative of the 50th Congressional District of California, and Steve Danon, his Chief of Staff, took a special tour of the Turk Family Center today.  Accompanied by JFS Board President Steve Levine and Board Member Mathew Kostrinsky, Congressman Bilbray heard about the many programs that we provide throughout San Diego County and the tremendous impact we have on the community. While stopping by our Hand Up Youth Food Pantry, Congressman Bilbray was introduced to a young wife of a Marine who discussed how important JFS has been to her family; not only providing nutritious food, but also relocation services and counseling. Congressman Bilbray was also briefed on our On the Go transportation program for older adults, Mentoring Mothers, the JFS Fix-It Service, and the programs we operate in the Coachella Valley. It was a great opportunity to meet with Congressman Bilbray and share our story.

From left to right: Matt Kostrinsky, Jill Spitzer, Congressman Bilbray, and Steve Levine

Congressman Bilbray with Shelly Hahne, Hand Up Youth Food Pantry Coordinator

Not only is Andrew Hoffman our July Employee of the Month, but we’ve been asking the community to vote for Andrew to be the San Diego Padre’s representative for People Magazine and Major League Baseball’s “All Stars Among Us” Campaign.  Good News – He Won!  As a winner, he’ll be attending MLB’s All-Star game on Tuesday, July 13th as representing the San Diego Padres, and our Hand Up Youth Food Pantry.  This is a great honor for Andrew, the food pantry and Jewish Family Service.  But as Shelly Hahne, Coordinator of the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry, can attest, “Andrew has always been an All-Star at JFS.”

I asked Shelly to write a little more about Andrew so you can get a full sense of his impact at JFS.  We are very proud of this accomplishment.

“Andrew treats everyone with the utmost respect, regardless if they are a co-worker, client, donor, or volunteer at JFS.  This respect is reciprocated by those who come in contact with Andrew.  This can be seen when Andrew attends Hand Up food distributions and clients begin chanting “Andrew! Andrew! Andrew!”  They chant his name and continuously ask how he is doing because they feel a special connection to him as someone who interacts with them as a person, not just as part of his job.  He has a special gift for remembering almost every client’s name, an exceptional skill when one considers that Andrew has served food to more than 3,360 people at the Downtown/Balboa Park site alone and he can place someone’s name with their face even after they have not picked up food for six months!

Tom Garfinkel, Padres COO, presenting Andrew with a $1,500 check for the Hand Up Youth Food Pantry from the San Diego Padres

Working at JFS for more than two years, Andrew has provided administrative support to a number of programs in JFS’ Community Service Department.  He currently holds the following titles:

• Adoption Alliance Administrative Assistant
• Hand Up Youth Food Pantry Administrative Assistant & Outreach Specialist
• Project SARAH Administrative Assistant
• Supporting Jewish Single Parents Administrative Assistant

Basically, Andrew does it all and is the glue that holds several programs together!  Andrew maintains a sense of calmness that resonates among co-workers.  With involvement in so many programs, Andrew helps to coordinate and attends multiple events each month.  He is able to pull together all of the little details that make an event successful while keeping a composed and relaxed attitude that makes it all seem so easy.  Andrew is a critical asset to all four programs he supports and no program could operate as smoothly as it does without him.

In addition to providing administrative support, Andrew is an Outreach Specialist for the teen leadership component of Hand Up.  He has been called “the Teen Whisperer” and it has been announced that it is “the Year of the Hoffman”.  Andrew has built rapport with each teen on the Student Executive Committee and is able to connect with and empower them to successfully host food drives, hold fundraisers, and lead volunteers.”

Andrew does so much for so many programs and is such an intricate part of JFS, he truly deserves this recognition. Congratulations Andrew!