Hunger At Home

by William Rapfogel

In response to your editorial, “Failing The Hunger Test” (May 2), I wanted to make people aware of a joint study the UJA-Federation and Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty released in 2003 on “Jewish Poverty in New York City,” which found 226,000 Jewish New Yorkers living at low enough incomes to qualify for entitlements.
Two years later, a follow-up study found an additional 104,000 living in near poverty — essentially just above the poverty level — and making too little to have a decent quality of life in New York, yet too much to be eligible for government benefits.
Every month, Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty provides kosher food to 13,500 New York families, most of them Jewish. Thousands more receive food vouchers to

help pay for food items they otherwise could not get. Suddenly, during the past couple of months, decent food is hard to come by for our network of kosher food pantries. The price of food is skyrocketing, a possible recession is unfolding, and along with a failure of the federal government to act on the Farm Bill, food stamp increases and the Emergency Food Assistance Program, more Americans are going hungry.
Your editorial correctly lays blame on Washington, D.C., for much of the problem. Yet, we must ask more of our city and state government to ensure that irreparable damage is not done to young children and the elderly because of poor nutrition. Met Council works closely with, among others, the Food Bank and City Harvest to help bring desperately needed food to more than 40 neighborhoods across New York. Our partners in this endeavor need help from Washington, Albany and City Hall as well.
Each and every one of us has a deep and abiding responsibility for one another, we are taught. With the cost of food, housing and energy making even the most basic necessities feel like a luxury, our community must take that principle to the next level and begin to truly take responsibility through our advocacy, philanthropy and personal actions and deeds.

Executive Director/CEO
Metropolitan Council
on Jewish Poverty
Manhattan

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization