Every month at a warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia, over 500 volunteers gather for a special event. They work together in a huge assembly line and fill boxes of kosher, non-perishable food for low-income Jews in the Philadelphia area. The program is coordinated by the Jewish Relief Agency, a project of Guideline Lubavitch Services. JRA serves 1,800 households each month. The organization receives significant funding from SHARE, Pennsylvania’s State Food Purchase Program, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. 
  

The energy in the warehouse is amazing. There are kids excited to hand out food, families practicing their Russian to greet the people they will visit, and people of all ages bustling about. In one hour, all the boxes are filled with canned fruits and vegetables, fish, soup, pasta and juice. Volunteers hear expressions of appreciation, and listen to an inspirational D’var Torah. The volunteers then load their cars with boxes, and deliver these packages to needy Jews throughout Philadelphia. 

JRA fulfills several federation priorities by helping the elderly and poor in our community. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia estimates there are 57,000 low-income people in Jewish households in the five-county greater Philadelphia area. This includes people below the poverty line and those hovering above poverty lebels, just trying to make ends meet.

JRA is also a social action project, helping to build strong Jewish identities, educate Jewish families and conduct outreach to Jews throughout the community. The volunteers include families, youth groups from the various streams of Judaism, fraternities and sororities, Hillel, synagogue men’s clubs, and others. Public officials and their staff often join JRA to help out.  Teens use JRA as their Bar Mitzvah project and invite their friends to help. A couple involved in the JRA board even invited their wedding guests to participate in a distribution in honor of their marriage.

To learn more about JRA, go to www.jewishrelief.org