A Sandwich a Day for Every Child
Beit Frankforter is a warm and welcoming activities center for Seniors in Jerusalem’s Baka neighborhood. The daily participants enjoy computer lessons, arts and crafts, exercises classes, English and Hebrew lessons, a hot lunch and more. The “more” is this: Three years ago, the “grandmothers” of Beit Frankforter mobilized in response to the dire hunger prevalent in Israel’s schoolchildren. Many leave home without breakfast and go to school hungry. And while some are able to bring a traditional 10:00 am morning snack with them from home, many do not because their families cannot afford to provide it.
Prior to the involvement of Hands On Tzedakah, each morning, the “grandmothers” prepared 100 sandwiches and added a piece of fruit to each meal. The bags of food were then delivered to 3 area schools. The principals of the schools discreetly identified the children in need and those students received a meal. The unfortunate observation: Hunger in Israel has become so critical a problem that some of the children receiving the sandwiches from Beit Frankforter take them home to share with siblings. One-third of Israeli children live below the poverty line. We believe offering food at school is more important than income supplements to parents as there is no guarantee the income supplements will be used for food.
Our Involvement
Hands on Tzedakah initially provided funding for an extra 100 meals for the 2003/2004 school year. That grant raised the total to 8 schools being helped; to 200 hungry children being fed every single school day. More and more schools began calling Beit Frankforter for help. It currently costs 75 cents per meal, per day. Today, Beit Frankforter is delivering to 14 schools and often preparing as many as 575 sandwiches each day wwith a maiximum capacity of 800 meals a day. Our initial grant to Beit Frankforter was the catalyst for the expansion of this important program.
With the support of Hands On Tzedakah and our donors, the “grandmothers” who saw the need are helping even more children, and in doing so they know they are being productive and helping the next generation of children in Israel.
Expansion of A Sandwich a Day for Every Child
One of our donors made a very generous long-term commitment to fund almost 3,000 meals per day in the Sandwich a Day for Every Child program. Since Beit Frankforter was almost at capacity in their volunteer manpower and storage, HOT turned to Table to Table based in Ra’anana to see if this volunteer driven organization was interested in implementing the program in other parts of Israel. Today, thousands of meals are being prepared and delivered daily to 54 schools located in Kfar Sava, Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Hadera, Bet Semesh, Ra’anana, Bat Yam, Hadera, Ramle and Akko. A full-time volunteer runs the program. She has a rotating cadre of volunteers who either prepare or deliver the meals (and only want to work more days.) We met with the women who make the sandwiches and pack the lunches in the Ra’anana warehouse, made several deliveries and then visited with the principals of three recipient schools. In all cases, this meal is lunch for the students. We observed the distribution which is usually through the janitor of the school where the children feel comfortable dropping by his room and picking up a lunch. The principals cannot thank us enough for helping to feed the children who noticeably are now able to concentrate better.
As this program becomes more well-known, the need for the continued expansion of it is more and more apparent. A large freshly baked roll, filled with either hummus, cheese, chocolate spread or occasionally meat, accompanied by a fruit or vegetable that comes through Table to Table’s food rescue program costs an average of 57 cents each. Table to Table estimates the need could go as high as 5,000 meals a day. For $102.60 you can feed one extra child for the school year. For $10,260 you can feed 100 extra children for the school year.
Contact Information:
Table to Table, Zara Provisor, Volunteer Sandwich Program Coordinator, P.O. Box 2297, Raanana, Israel, telephone: 011-972-9-744-1757, email: zara@tabletotable.org.il, web site: www.tabletotable.org.il
Beit Frankforter- Jerusalem Center for the Aged, Sima Zini, Director, 80 Derech Bet Lechem, Jerusalem, Israel 93630, Tel: 011-972-02-671-4848, e-mail: frankfor@netvision.net.il
