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Foundation Continues Fight Against Hunger Despite Economic Woes
Lshuman
Raise the cost of gas, and transportation costs rise. In turn, food producers and distributors raise their prices, taking a heavy toll people who were trapped beneath the poverty line even before the onset of the current economic crisis. This story is no different in Central Ohio. Reports that the Mid-Ohio Foodbank—a member of the nation’s largest non-governmental, domestic hunger relief organization—prompted a call to action and a $40,000 grant to the food bank from the Columbus Jewish Foundation’s Social Justice Endowment Fund.
“When members of the Foundation’s Social Justice Committee identify social injustices, local emergencies, and similar needs like emergent hunger in our backyards, we extend an outstretched arm in the name of the Columbus Jewish Foundation and the local Jewish community”, explained Social Justice Committee Chair Jo Robbins. Jack Meizlish and Ruth Ann Blank presented the check for the Foodbank’s Community Hunger Project last week, following a meeting with its director Matt Habash. “With the struggling economy and people truly unable to make ends meet, the need is too great for people of conscience to ignore,” they said following the site visit. Blank and Meizlish are members of the seventeen-member Social Justice Committee, the volunteer grants making group that governs the Columbus Jewish Foundation’s Social Justice Endowment Fund.
Since July, the Social Justice Committee has awarded 28 “Shalom Grants” for food assistance for the needy. In addition to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank contribution, the Social Justice Committee approved a $10,000 emergency grant to MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, a highly effective organization that allocates donations from Jews throughout the country to alleviate hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds. MAZON will use this to favor Columbus area projects and food programs “Our collaboration with MAZON will further its reach during these very difficult times and also enhance its local presence,” said Babette Feibel, who co-chairs the Foundation’s Grant Committee.
Feibel also noted that under the auspices of its Social Justice Committee, the Foundation hosts a SCRIP Program to help local Jewish community members facing hunger, illness or financial crisis. SCRIP gift cards can be used at Kroger stores for food, gasoline or medicine. The Foundation partners with 13 local partner agencies and congregations, including Jewish Family Services, that distribute the cards to people and families whom they know to be in need. More than $12,500 in SCRIP vouchers have been given out to 130 local Jews since the program began.
Commenting on Columbus Jewish Foundation’s grants program and its priorities during the economic downturn, Foundation President Michael Weiss observed that charities are taking a two-sided hit from government cutbacks and diminishing private donations. “As resources dwindle and expectations increase, charities must be strategic, doing more with less.” He added that as charities prudently work to keep costs down and adjust programs, the Columbus Jewish Foundation will make every responsible effort to help them support basic community needs.”
For over 53 years, through good times and bad, the Columbus Jewish Foundation has responded to unmet community needs. “Foundation grants, now and always, are based with on a focus on mission, money, and priority of need. Especially during periods like this, fiscal stress must be well managed. By being strategic with the use of community reserves housed at the Columbus Jewish Foundation, we hope to return to a new normalcy as soon as possible,” said Weiss.
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Cole Essay 2010
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