Project Spotlight: Fellowship Soup Kitchens

The Fellowship  |  February 4, 2019

Yael Eckstein making a plate for an IFCJ recipient at a Fellowship Soup Kitchen.
Project Spotlight: Fellowship Soup Kitchens

Recently, Yael Eckstein visited the Fellowship-supported Mana Hama Soup Kitchen, which caters to the needs of the most desperate citizens of Israel – Holocaust survivors, lonely elderly, large families, new immigrants, and the homeless. The soup kitchen serves hundreds of warm meals daily to Israelis who would otherwise go hungry. Yael spent time filling plates and warming hearts, as she visited with the guests and shared special moments.

Based in Ashdod, the Fellowship-supported soup kitchen is open 6 days a week. They offer warm meals to guests who visit in person, and also deliver meals to the homebound.

For many of the guests, Mana Hama is much more than a soup kitchen. Here they come to meet friends, feel accepted, spend time talking and playing cards, and, for the elderly, share their remaining years with people who they relate to. For people who are in the middle of a financial crisis and can barely put food on the table, this support is life changing.

Many of the elderly who come to the Fellowship-supported soup kitchen live by themselves in small, dilapidated one-room apartments. They have no food in their refrigerators, and sadly, no visitors to talk to or share moments of life with. Also, most of them are immigrants, many from Russia. They are desperate to be in the company of other elderly people who speak their language and share the same background and struggles.

This lifesaving assistance is only possible because of the generosity of Fellowship friends around the world. Thank you!