(Courtesy of MEALuim) Liat lives in Kiryat Menachem, a suburb of Jerusalem. Her husband, Yosef, left the house on October 8, and while he calls home daily from his post up north, the updates from home are generally more upbeat on nights when MEALuim takes over. Liat doesn’t have to plan meals, cook or wash pots. The kids are excited to sit down and see what treats are delivered, and they love ending their dinner making a thank you video and practicing their English for the donors from Tenafly. “We always want to be on the giving side of things, and thank God, Yosef is serving our country proudly, but I won’t deny that getting this weekly meal is a real pick-me-up and teaches my kids as well, that there are times to accept some help and show appreciation.”
MEALuim is an online platform that matches Israeli communities of IDF reservists with individuals or communities overseas. People simply log on, choose the family size and number of weeks and pay directly for a fresh delivered kosher meal to be sent to a family whose parent is serving in the IDF reserves.
“I oversee 1,400 volunteers in my professional capacity at Tzohar, and over the past few months I am witnessing the unavoidable strains and unraveling of these strong, wonderful families,” explained Rabbanit Naomi Ansbacher, a Jerusalem communal leader and director of volunteers at Tzohar. “On the battlefield and on the homefront they are working to keep morale up. But it’s hard. When one spouse is away serving in the IDF reserves, kids are without a parent at home for weeks at a time and neighbors are burdened with helping tens of families daily. While at the start of the war there was a surplus of help and positivity from work and neighbors, life goes on and now at 100 days in, the support systems are overloaded and are crashing.
“When a soldier thinks that his family back home is having trouble dealing with unavoidable longing, uncertainty and terrible fear, it’s all that much harder for him to face his own challenges on the battlefield,” Ansbacher continued. “It’s bad enough to have to put your career, studies and family life on hold, but it’s especially hard if you’re constantly worried about how your wife and kids are coping.
“I knew we needed to find more resources to help lift these families. And I knew that overseas there are many people who expressed feeling ‘helpless’ and who want to be that loving neighbor bringing that pot of soup—so I created MEALuim.”
MEALuim has been identifying families through a community-based model, with the community coordinator serving as a liaison to Tzohar and the food vendors. It has been much easier to locate religious families because they live in organized communities in cities and distant yishuvim. At the same time, MEALuim is making a concerted effort to reach all segments of society. Recipients are being identified through the army—battalion commanders in Gaza for example are letting MEALuim know which families are really feeling the need for help.
“We want both sides of the ocean to feel the love and achdut that have been remarkably strong and healing since October 7,” Ansbacher said. “So besides just donating, MEALuim offers families the opportunity to connect with the family receiving the food so they can express their appreciation of one another. Even school-age children can empathize with the Israeli experience and get involved in this effort.”
Local “communities” being matched include Keter Torah, Keshet of Tenafly, Netivot Shalom, Rinat Yisrael, and Bergen County Supports Israel. To learn more go to https://tzohar-eng.org/mealuim/ and make a difference for an Israeli family, which will in turn support the IDF forces.