When the pandemic first hit, we mobilized quickly to address our community’s most urgent needs. We partnered with Jewish Family Services (JFS) and the Albany County Department for Aging to bring a kosher meals-on-wheels program to the homebound and offered grocery shopping and delivery to our seniors to help keep them home and safe. We thank the scores of volunteers and the very generous donors who stepped in early to help us.

 

Seven months later, we’ve had an opportunity to assess and reflect. Where are people on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Can we move on to helping people with their psychological needs, or do we still have more work to do meeting physiological needs? The answer is both.

 

We need to continue bringing food to people and step it up with support for the Shalom Food Pantry. People are suffering financially; we need to create a JFS Financial Assistance Program and support the Delmar Chabad Free Loan Fund. People are suffering emotionally; we need to support a variety of counseling and therapy programs. Our communal infrastructure is struggling; we need to infuse our institutions with some funding to ensure that they will continue to provide for us.

 

With the encouragement of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), major national foundations, and a local anonymous philanthropist, we have the opportunity to create a $180,000 Human Services Relief Fund to help address all of these needs as illustrated in this chart.

 

Here’s how it works: For every $1 that you earmark for the Human Services Relief Fund before December 31, our donors will match $1 up to $90,000. The only caveat required by the donors is that you may not reduce your gift to Federation’s annual campaign below last year’s level and still be eligible for the match. Everything else qualifies. Let’s get this done. People are counting on us. Thank you.

 

Click here to donate now.