While the Pitchon-Lev organization is fighting this year more than ever to respond to all requests for assistance with a holiday dinner for Rosh Hashanah Eve, the organization received another hard line when it was instructed to move its northern emergency logistics center from its permanent location in Karmiel. The organization received the instruction in light of the security situation and missiles that fell a few days ago near the place. In the given situation, a week before the eve of the holiday, 3,500 families in the north currently have no response to a food basket for the holiday.
This joins new data published by the organization in recent days, according to which there is an 89% increase in the number of northern families requesting aid for the holiday. Eli Cohen, CEO of Pitchon-Lev: "The organization tries to help all the families that apply for help, but this holiday feels like 'Solomon's trial.' If it weren't for the donations from the public, more and more families in the north would find themselves unable to celebrate the holiday with dignity."
In the organization Pitchon-Lev for the mode of experience in assisting in crisis situations in Israel, in recent days they have to face a new type of challenge, this is when the organization was instructed to immediately move the northern logistics center to another location. The center, located in Karmiel, has been used by the organization in recent months to assist 34 families from the conflict line settlements who were not evacuated from their homes. In the actual transfer of the logistic center, the organization reports an unexpected lack of food baskets for 3,500 families in the settlements of the conflict line in the north.
The latest news joins the hard data that the organization is publishing now, the likes of which even veterans of the organization do not remember since the organization was founded 26 years ago with the aim of breaking the cycle of poverty in Israel. The data shows that compared to the previous Rosh Hashanah, there is a jump of no less than 25% in the number of families requesting food assistance for the holiday, and no less than 15% compared to the evening of the last Seder night, less than six months ago. In the northern region, the increase in aid applicants is even more unusual and reaches 89% more than before the last Passover.
The organization's data also shows the entry of new families into the cycle of poverty in Israel, which are among populations that are not usually talked about in the discourse on poverty in Israel. Ahead of the upcoming holiday, there is a dramatic increase of about 20% in the number of young families in their 20s and 30s, a jump of no less than 27% since last Rosh Hashanah. Not only that, but among the aid applicants there is also a 45% increase among working families - 30% more than in the same period last year. Moreover, the organization also reports an increase in requests for assistance from single-parent families, a record increase of 87% compared to last year's Rosh Hashanah.
The difficult picture is felt at Pitchon-Lev throughout the entire year, since the organization is connected directly and regularly to the area and provides the families in its care with family food baskets every week. The organization's employees and volunteers know how to tell that every week they meet more and more families they didn't know before, new faces in the queues to receive food baskets and dozens of phone calls from families who were in financial distress.
Eli Cohen, CEO of Pitchon-Lev, says that as the war continued, more and more families needed assistance, and some of them even officially fell into the cycle of poverty. We see its effects in every personal story that reaches the organization. More and more families who never for a moment dreamed of needing food aid, more and more families who entered the long-term process of the organization to get out of the cycle of poverty."
Pitchon-Lev, which normally works to break the cycle of poverty in Israel, found itself operating on two fronts since the outbreak of the war on October 7. While the organization continued the aid to the 200,000 Israelis in the cycle of poverty, whom it regularly assists throughout the year, Pitchon-Lev also began aid for the cause against the background of the war. During the past year, the organization helped IDF soldiers, the families of the evacuees and the communities of the south and the north with approximately 380,000 food baskets, more than 100 tons of equipment, 17,300 Nutrilon kits and diapers for toddlers, approximately 14,000 hygiene and toiletry kits, along with exhausting rights in the amount of more than NIS 20 million, in projects run by the organization.
At the same time, the socio-economic consequences of the war continue to flow and over time. "The organization is trying to help all the families who turn to us for help, but this holiday feels more and more like 'Solomon's trial,'" says Eli Cohen, who adds that "in the current economic situation and the price increases, the organization also finds itself harmed and has a more limited ability to help everyone. If it weren't for the donations from the public, More and more families would find themselves unable to celebrate the holiday with dignity."
The organization took it upon itself to help 18,000 families with family and healthy food baskets for the eve of Rosh Hashanah, and is trying to cope with the amount of requests that just keep piling up. Each family receives in the food basket for the holiday meat and fish, cheeses and dairy products, legumes, pastries, canned goods, vegetables and fruits, bottles of wine, spices and other basic products for cooking.
"We insist on providing families with rich food baskets that include everything a family needs to sit down with dignity for a holiday meal. That none of the family members feel poverty or lack on an evening that is supposed to be festive," says Cohen, who adds that "thanks to donations that come from tens of thousands of generous Israelis who care For them, at Pitchon-Lev they will make sure that it is possible."
Against the background of the difficult data and the many families who are waiting at the doors of the food aid organization for the holiday dinner, Pitchon-Lev called on the public to help by donating so that no family is left behind. The organization stated that the donations are especially important this year, especially in light of the past year and the upcoming year when thousands of families are still displaced from their homes in the north and south, and many others are still being evacuated to hotels.