“Poverty and hunger do not take vacation days,” says Colel Chabad, explaining why their “United Soup Kitchens” operate 365 days a year, in Jerusalem and 21 other towns and cities across Israel.
United Soup Kitchens are Israel’s largest network of free dining establishments, serving over a million meals per year, mostly at central locations. But now, with the coronavirus epidemic turning life upside-down for all of us, what happens to the meals?
The restaurants have been closed “until further notice” in compliance with Health Ministry regulations, but the need for a daily nutritious meal has not gone away. And it’s specifically those most vulnerable to coronavirus who usually avail themselves of the hot meal that they wouldn’t otherwise have – the elderly, the infirm, the impoverished, Holocaust survivors. Many of these people live alone and lonely, and their daily visit to the local Colel Chabad restaurant often represented their only quality time – a time to sit in the company of others, to enjoy a hot meal, to feel cared for.
Realizing that these people could not simply be abandoned in their homes, Colel Chabad decided that if they could not come to the meals, then the meals would come to them.
Using a network of young, energetic and enthusiastic volunteers, United Soup Kitchens is now sending out thousands of hot meals every single day, delivering them right to the doorsteps of the elderly and infirm, impoverished and vulnerable, making sure that at least once a day they have a nutritious meal and they know that someone is thinking about them.