‘Hunger never takes a vacation’

A two-ton donation of kosher Passover food will be delivered by Stop & Shop to the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC Sustenance Center in Cedarhurst on March 20. The delivery, part of the supermarket chain’s community outreach program, will help further the JCC’s mission to aid people in need.

The Sustenance Center sustained a power outage on March 2, when the first of this month’s three nor’easters struck Long Island. That caused the JCC’s stockpile for the upcoming Jewish holiday (March 30 to April 7) to spoil. The third storm caused the March 13 delivery to be postponed.

Nearly two years ago, Stop & Shop donated a ton of Passover food to the JCC’s Rina Shkolnik Kosher Food Pantry, which was then in Woodmere. Now the pantry is part of the Sustenance Center.

“It’s a collaborative effort,” said Stop & Shop spokeswoman Cindy Carrasquilla. “The food pantry needs to continue to grow, and we’re glad to increase the amount. Hunger never takes a vacation. On Long Island we partner with Long Island Harvest and Long Island Cares weekly for the Meet the Needs program yearlong. On Thanksgiving we gave out over 21,000 turkeys. Along with Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, we’re going to give out Easter hams at St. John’s University.” In all, Carrasquilla said, Stop & Shop aids nearly 900 pantries, agencies and organizations in the metropolitan area.

Gural JCC officials have said that the Sustenance Center was created “to help meet the growing need for assistance within the Five Towns and across Long Island.” There are roughly 20,000 Jewish people in southwestern Nassau County and eastern Queens who live in poverty.

“Passover is our most celebrated holiday, but the special foods needed for the holiday can cause a financial burden for those whose budgets are already stretched,” said Rabbi Steven Graber of Temple Hillel in North Woodmere. “Stop & Shop’s amazing contributions to the food pantry are a godsend.”

Established in 2005, the food pantry began by helping 35 families, and it now works with nearly 300 families from the Five Towns and neighboring communities in Nassau and Queens. It is the largest kosher food pantry on Long Island, a joint initiative of Gural JCC and UJA-Federation of New York, and is supported by Community Chest South Shore, Inwood Charities Fund, Long Island Cares and Long Island Harvest.

“When our Joel Block, our immediate past executive director, dreamed of a new facility to meet the demands of residents struggling with hunger, he wanted to create a dignified supermarket experience providing perishable and non-perishable foods at no cost,” said the JCC’s current executive director, Amy Mosery. “Thanks to the Stop & Shop donation and all our community supporters, we’re now able to make this dream a reality.”

The donation includes matzo, matzo meal, chicken soup and matzo ball mix, Passover cereal and pancake mix, frozen chicken nuggets and stuffed cabbage, canned vegetables, salmon and tuna, gefilte fish, grape and apple juice, boxed mixes of potato kugel and cakes, and apple sauce.

“Everyone’s Pesach Seder begins with Ha Lachma Anya’s invitation to the hungry to join in our festive Pesach meal,” said Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum of Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. “Stop & Shop is generously donating toward the effort of feeding the needy of our community, reminding us all of the spirit of kindness in which our holiday observance must begin.”

Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, of Temple Israel of Lawrence, said that the supermarket franchise’s donation is a challenge and an example to corporate America to look beyond the bottom line. “It helps to fulfill the age-old mitzvah of the Passover Seder as a communal meal,” he said. “Stop & Shop is enabling the members of our community, regardless of their economic status, to fulfill this commandment that bonds all Jews.”

Carrasquilla said she appreciates Rosenbaum’s recognition. “Nice to hear that the rabbi is a firm believer in what Stop & Shop does,” she said. “Giving back is a key consideration in our community relations.”

Rabbi Claudio Kupchik of Temple Beth El in Cedarhurst said that the Jewish people’s freedom and future redemption is linked to the Ha Lachma Anya prayer, which notes the willingness to share with others “the blessings we enjoy in our lives.” “One of the most touching traditions of the Passover Seder,” Kupchik said, “is the moment when we uncover and lift the matzo, open the door of our home and recite the Ha Lachma Anya.”