Good Monday morning!
In today’s Your Day by day Phil, we report on a recent mobile aid effort in Ukraine, and have an op-ed by Randy Spiegel on nonprofit governance. Also in this text: Michael Bloomberg, Yossi Sagol, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Mikhail Fridman. We’ll start by explaining why Jewish groups are celebrating an update to a government food-assistance website.
Within the wake of a White House conference on ending hunger earlier this yr, Jewish groups that work on the problem said one among their priorities was that Jews who keep kosher and receive government assistance have the opportunity to acquire foods they will eat.
Those groups at the moment are celebrating a small step in that direction. About two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a whole list of the foods it offers through TEFAP, a program that supplies food banks and pantries, and noted which of them are kosher and halal. As well as, its website has an inventory of foods on the list that, based on many opinions, don’t require certification — comparable to fruits, vegetables and milk, and provides an evidence of what kosher observance involves.
“We’re grateful that the Biden-Harris administration is using so many tools and resources to assist those facing food insecurity, including members of the Jewish community,” Abby Leibman, president and CEO of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, one among the groups that consulted on the problem, told eJewishPhilanthropy. Leibman also called for the federal government to “strengthen” other food-assistance programs.
But while the list of kosher foods is now public, it stays short. Only eight of 126 items are certified kosher, while 31 others are generally acceptable without certification.
David Greenfield, CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which also consults with the USDA, told eJP that the publication of the list was an “vital recognition by the Biden administration and the USDA of the needs of people that depend on kosher food,” but added, “without more culturally responsive food available through TEFAP, kosher pantries in Latest York and throughout the country will proceed to struggle.”
In accordance with the Jewish Federations of North America, the USDA will increase the list of kosher food products by 50% in 2023. Darcy Hirsh, JFNA’s associate vice chairman of public affairs, said her organization was “grateful to the USDA for being so attentive to the concerns we voiced in regards to the lack of dietary kosher meals available to families in need within the Jewish community.”
Along with those groups, the USDA site directs users to a handful of other Jewish organizations which have advocated on the problem, including the Haredi organization Agudath Israel; Masbia, a food-assistance organization based in Latest York City; and the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies.