Providing the help its neighbors need

Five Towns Community Chest is proudly associated with 24 local agencies and affiliates which provide various services to Five Towns residents. Community Chest strives to financially assist organizations that work to improve the community in any way they can, such as the Jewish Community Center of the Greater Five Towns.
JCC Executive Director Joel Block and Director of Development and Marketing Stacey Feldman, said that one of the main benefits of the JCC’s partnership with Community Chest is the assistance of the Neighbors in Need Program. Neighbors in Need is a Community Chest fund that is set up for individuals and families who request financial relief for last minute emergencies such as the inability to purchase food or clothing, pay bills, and other essential expenses.
Social workers at the JCC apply for funds from Neighbors in Need on behalf of their clients who are struggling financially. Block and Feldman described Neighbors in Need as “unique” because very few relief efforts are set up in such a way that the individual is able to receive direct cash assistance so quickly. Neighbors in Need funds are “temporary gifts for immediate crises,” said Feldman, as the JCC’s team of social workers strive to ensure that individuals will eventually be independent of the center and will no longer need support.
Community Chest also supports the JCC’s Rina Shkolnik Kosher Food Pantry. The food pantry was formerly located in the basement of the JCC’s main building, but it quickly became a necessity to establish an independent location as its efforts expanded. Feldman said, the JCC “turned to Five Towns Community Chest for additional support” when starting up the new pantry’s location in Woodmere on Central Avenue to pay the monthly rent and get the new facility up and running.
Joel Block noted the work of the food pantry, claiming that the “difference it makes to people is not in the money or in numbers,” but rather the sense of comfort it gives to its patrons as several of them do not always have the means to regularly stop at the local supermarkets. The food pantry is a remarkable example of Community Chest’s motto of “neighbors helping neighbors” as several members of the community continuously make donations to help those in need.
That is just two examples of the work done by the JCC of the Greater Five Towns. Feldman said that they truly “run the gamut of family situations” by assisting many in varying situations and those with ongoing struggles. Five Towns Community Chest is extremely proud to be affiliated with the Five Towns JCC and the variety of work that they do in order to promote well-being throughout the community.