When the COVID-19 pandemic left many vulnerable seniors and others quarantining in their homes and other community members with restricted access to food for themselves and their families, Jewish agencies supplying kosher meals on wheels and stocking food pantries scrambled to meet their needs.
“It was very bad here in Middlesex,” said Roni Salkin, executive director of the Jewish Family Services of Middlesex County. “We had a lot of people who never used a food pantry come to us. In some cases, they had kids home from school so they had more mouths to feed.”
The demand for its meals on wheels program also rose dramatically from between 500-550 meals weekly to a peak of close to 900, although it has now dropped to about 800.
The agency has been able to decrease its volunteers to 75 because it is delivering the meals only twice weekly, using a socially distant routine of knocking on doors and waiting from six feet away for the recipient to answer. Salkin said the volunteers are instructed to inquire how the recipient is faring and if there are any problems to pass the information to JFS. If no one comes to the door, volunteers call them. If they get no answer, which Salkin said rarely happened, volunteers immediately contact the agency so staff can check on their well-being.
The meals are prepared at the Orchid Restaurant in Metuchen. Food for the week is delivered on Mondays and Wednesdays to cut down on the amount of days volunteers are out,” said Salkin.
“In early March we went out and bought thousands of masks, gloves and sanitizing wipes and gave them to our volunteers,” said Salkin.
JFS’s food pantry serviced 265 clients this past March, as compared to the 117 it served the previous March. Salkin said it also provided supplies like diapers, baby food and feminine hygiene products.
The Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Northern New Jersey, which serves Bergen, Passaic and North Hudson counties, experienced a 53% increase in meals on wheels requests, according to Chief Development Officer Michele Wellikoff. Its food pantries, in Teaneck and Fair Lawn, similarly experienced a 30% spike.
“We never had a volunteer shortage,” she said. “At the beginning we were afraid we wouldn’t get volunteers to deliver or that people would be afraid to get the meals but that never happened.” Volunteers wore masks and gloves and were also told to step back yet check to make sure the recipient was doing well.
“We also have a telephone reassurance program that calls the seniors just to check in,” said Wellikoff. “And, of course, our case managers have increased their frequency of calling seniors.”
Prior to the pandemic, the agency was delivering meals to approximately 150 clients a week and added 91 new ones as the crisis unfolded. Deliveries of meals from Mauzone restaurant in Queens are picked up in Teaneck and Wayne by volunteers who used to make deliveries four times a week but now deliver only on Mondays and Thursdays.
The Jewish Family Service and Children’s Center of Passaic-Clifton “definitely had a push” during that time, said case manager Nancy Cohen. However, because there were a number of additional active services available to Jewish community members in need, requests only increased from about four recipients to seven. The meals are prepared at Daughters of Israel in Clifton. Cohen added that the Bikur Cholim of Passaic-Clifton had volunteers go food shopping for those who couldn’t get out.
The Jewish Community Center of MetroWest also runs a kosher meals on wheels program.
