Kosher meals now available as part of NYC’s hunger relief efforts
New York City Image by iStock
(JTA) — New York City is now distributing kosher food through the meals program launched to keep city residents fed during the current coronavirus-induced upheaval.
The city began giving out three meals a day to children and their family members after schools closed in mid-March. In early April, the city began offering the meals to all New Yorkers. But no kosher meals were available.
That changed this week after pressure from New York City Council members and Jewish advocates who noted that the city offered other specialized foods, including halal meals for Muslim residents, but not meals that Jews who observe dietary laws could eat.
“After weeks of urging the mayor’s office … to implement kosher ‘grab and go’ meals, I am happy that they finally heard our call,” Councilman Chaim Deutsch said in a statement. “There is no reason that kosher-observant New Yorkers should have had to wait weeks longer than the rest of the city to be allowed equal access to our most basic need — food.”
Along with the City Council’s Jewish Caucus, which Deutsch leads, the UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Education Project and an education advocacy initiative of the Orthodox Union all lobbied for the change.
New Yorkers have picked up 4.5 million free meals since the crisis began, according to city data. The kosher meals are being distributed starting this week at 10 public schools in heavily Jewish areas of Brooklyn and Queens, including in Williamsburg and Borough Park, neighborhoods that have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The post Kosher meals now available as part of New York City’s hunger relief efforts appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
