Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Hungry Furloughed Families Get Hot Meals And Groceries From Queens Jewish Group

As the government shutdown reaches its fourth week, the Flushing Jewish Community Council in Queens, New York, has started feeding federal employees and their families, donating boxes of food items and hot dinners, Queens News and Community (QNS) reported.

The council is distributing food at a local synagogue, Temple Beth Sholom. Paul Engel, executive director of FJCC, told QNS that the organization has items such as canned fruits, canned vegetables, cereal, pasta, tuna fish and salmon.

“Mostly the people that come are Medicaid people, but I saw that there’s a food pantry in Long Island that is doing this,” Engel said. “There are people who could probably use some temporary relief, since they’re not getting paychecks and we also offer other services.”

FJCC is also providing services such as English classes, ESL/civics class and individual, couple, family and group therapy.

Masbia of Queens, a nonprofit soup kitchen and food pantry, is also offering hot meals and groceries, according to QNS. Its two other locations in Brooklyn will also have sit-down dinners.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.