Food

Toronto’s First Kosher Food Bank Is Closing

Image by iStock

By Shira Feder July 23, 2018

It feeds 150 hungry families a week. On Tuesdays, it has about 25 to 30 loyal volunteers prepping meals to hand out about 400 bags of food. And it only costs about $800 a week to run, as Alan Marks, one of Pride of Israel Synagogue’s food banks founders, told CJNews.com.

Donations have shrunk and the two major benefactors of the Pride of Israel food bank are withdrawing their support. One unexpected major benefactor? The Salvation Army. A will of a Jewish man who they had helped find housing declared his last wish to be feeding the needy. The Salvation Army put his remaining assets towards helping the ‘Pride of Israel’ food bank. But money is running out.

14.6% of Canadian Jews live below the poverty line. The cost of keeping kosher is alarmingly high.

“If things continue as they are, I don’t see it continuing,” Marks told CJN.

Shira Feder is a writer. She’s at [email protected]

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