Jewish Relief Agency (JRA): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:36, 24 December 2020

In the summer of 2000, I (Marc Erlbaum, co-founder) told Rabbi Menachem Schmidt that I had a few friends who might be interested in doing a relief mission to help poor Jews overseas. He said “shnook” (or some similar and less repeatable Yiddish word), “what about all the poor Jews right here in Philadelphia?”

So, we identified 19 Russian-speaking families who needed help. We rented a U-Haul truck, loaded it up with food from BJ’s, and made our first deliveries in September of that year. By the second month, word had spread, and we had about 37 homes to deliver to. So I called my brother and my cousin and a few friends, and 8 of us got it done. By month 3, there were about 15 volunteers and 50 some recipients, and we put a note in each box in English and Russian that said if you know anyone else who needs food, have them call us. Within 3 days, we had received nearly 1,000 calls.

Since then, we have outgrown 2 warehouses, we’ve grown from serving 19 families to over 3,200 households, and our volunteer corps has swelled from those 3 initial volunteers to between 500 and 1,000 every month. A lot of hard work has gone into that growth – we have a terrific staff now and a very dedicated board and yellow-capper team – but the key ingredient is our volunteers. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to get all of this done – if we had to pay for packing and deliveries, we’d be broke and out of business.

Note: The above descriptive information came from the organization's Our Story page.

In The News

Philadelphia-Area Social Service Agencies See Increased Need for Food, Mental Health Resources, Jewish Exponent, October 22, 2020.
Jewish Relief Agency Marks Milestone While Helping The Hungry, CBS-3, November 15, 2015.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [http://www.jewishrelief.org/philadelphia/ jewishrelief.org/philadelphia]
-The Philadelphia branch of '''Jewish Relief Agency''', also known as Philadelphia JRA, gives the following descriptive information:
+In the summer of 2000, I (Marc Erlbaum, co-founder) told Rabbi Menachem Schmidt that I had a few friends who might be interested in doing a relief mission to help poor Jews overseas. He said “shnook” (or some similar and less repeatable Yiddish word), “what about all the poor Jews right here in Philadelphia?”
-<blockquote>JRA is the largest provider of food assistance to Jewish families in need in the Greater Philadelphia region and is the third largest direct-service food pantry in our area. Our monthly food distributions, which began in 2000, now assist over 3,000 low income households each month. What’s more, JRA has one of the largest corps of volunteers in the region – over 14,500 to date with an average of more than 850 people of all ages and backgrounds that volunteer each month. For many recipients, the work of JRA means the difference between eating regularly and going without.<br><br>We serve a wide variety of people from all walks of life who find themselves in need of JRA’s assistance. These include families with young children, the unemployed, people living with mental or physical disabilities, and elderly people living on a fixed income while struggling to make ends meet. While 85% of JRA’s clients are Jewish, JRA will provide food to anyone in need who asks for our help.<br><br>Those who need help beyond a monthly food receive help through our JRAid program. Volunteers can sign up to help in a variety of ways, such as providing a ride to the doctor, doing yard work, purchasing a supermarket gift card, visiting with a shut in senior, and more.</blockquote>
+So, we identified 19 Russian-speaking families who needed help. We rented a U-Haul truck, loaded it up with food from BJ’s, and made our first deliveries in September of that year. By the second month, word had spread, and we had about 37 homes to deliver to. So I called my brother and my cousin and a few friends, and 8 of us got it done. By month 3, there were about 15 volunteers and 50 some recipients, and we put a note in each box in English and Russian that said if you know anyone else who needs food, have them call us. Within 3 days, we had received nearly 1,000 calls.
+Since then, we have outgrown 2 warehouses, we’ve grown from serving 19 families to over 3,200 households, and our volunteer corps has swelled from those 3 initial volunteers to between 500 and 1,000 every month. A lot of hard work has gone into that growth – we have a terrific staff now and a very dedicated board and yellow-capper team – but the key ingredient is our volunteers. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to get all of this done – if we had to pay for packing and deliveries, we’d be broke and out of business.
+''Note:''&nbsp;&nbsp;The above descriptive information came from the organization's [https://www.jewishrelief.org/about-us.html Our Story] page.
 ==In The News==
 *[http://www.jewishexponent.com/2020/10/22/philadelphia-area-social-service-agencies-see-increased-need-for-food-mental-health-resources/ Philadelphia-Area Social Service Agencies See Increased Need for Food, Mental Health Resources], Jewish Exponent, October 22, 2020.