Project Spotlight: With Dignity and Fellowship
The Fellowship | January 11, 2022
In 2013, we established our flagship program With Dignity and Fellowship, which provides ongoing food and basic needs to 15,000 of Israel’s poorest elderly and Holocaust survivors. Once an elderly person enters the program, we are committed to caring for them for the rest of their life.
With the compassionate support of wonderful friends like you, we reach the poorest elderly, providing them with food, clothing, medications, visits and check ins, as well as emergency funds for basic needs.
With a focus on Holocaust survivors, we strategically choose elderly beneficiaries of the program with full partnership from local welfare agencies, based on need levels and transparent and equal criteria. The elderly selected for the program are those who are 80 years old or older, have basic food needs with no family support, and subsist solely from a social security supplemental income and their old-age pension.
Thankfully, the program is active in 52 local municipalities in Israel, classified by the Israeli Government on the socio-economic poverty scale with a ranking of 1-5 (with 10 being the strongest).
The With Dignity and Fellowship program provides the following types of food assistance on a monthly basis, based on the specific needs of the beneficiary:
Supermarket Food Cards
Food cards are used for the purchase of groceries and automatically recharged on a monthly basis. This type of assistance helps elderly who are mobile. They can go shopping on their own or send a caregiver to make the purchases.
Food Boxes
The recipient can choose from one of five food boxes containing a selection of food staples. This type of assistance meets the needs of elderly who are unable to easily leave their homes, but can still cook for themselves. Or have a caregiver who can cook for them.
Meals on Wheels
The recipient can choose from a menu of ready-made meals on a weekly basis. This meets the needs of elderly whose health is in the poorest condition and are unable cook for themselves.
Teff Flour
The program also provides teff whole grain flour to beneficiaries of Ethiopian decent, in order to enable the diet of their preference, according to their tradition.
This help really makes a difference. Besides meeting their basic needs and helping them live with dignity, it shows these elderly and their loved ones that we haven’t forgotten about them.