Hunger Initiative

THANK YOU FROM GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE

HUNGER INITIATIVE PASS IT FORWARD

Pass it Forward would like to extend a gracious thank you to everyone who

enabled this tremendous chesed. This year we delivered over a thousand

meals to needy families in Long Island and Queens, including families

suggested to us by the Hatzilu Rescue organization which takes care of

needy families here in Great Neck. Each year as the need for our services

grow, the generosity of our community rises to meet that need. While we

would be overwhelmed if we acknowledged all donors, a few special thank

yous are in order .Each year the Lillien family graciously donates hundreds

of food containers and tea lights, so that our community members can make

pots of soup on the day of the initiative. A group of chesed activists in the

Bet Midrash (dubbed “the boys”) have increased their generosity every

year, and place a large food order with Everfresh to insure that every needy

family on our list will receive all the celebratory Yom Tov foods. Boys,

tikunah L’mitzvot. Everfresh, Mazurs & Great Neck Glatt are integral

participants in our program and allow us to make it easy for people to

donate delicious and healthy meals. This year, Brandon Gold was our high

school liaison and worked efficiently and effectively with the local restaurants

for donations. In these difficult times, we received generous donations

from: Cho-Sen, Great Neck Grill, Dougies, Chatenooga and Colbeh.

Please try to patronize our kosher establishments so that they can continue

to support our community in return. Brandon also got us a record number of

high school volunteers, we hope he can train next years liaison. A very

special thank you to our Committee members, Felecia Morris, Celia and

Jack Lemonik, Charlie Mandelbaum, Diane Rein and Margery Libin.

We may be small in numbers, but each of you is a powerhouse. A special

thanks to Janet Hakimian, her group of volunteers, Fery Sedeghatpour,

Marcel Arielle and other members of the Persian community who

volunteer their time and resources to fill the voids in our program. We could

not have run so smoothly without the expert help of Dario Taveras and his

staff who worked so hard to help us make the day happen. Finally, it really

takes a community to complete this project. Each year, after the last

package is delivered we recognize the miracles of the day. This year with a

dozen extra routes and so many more families to feed, we ended the day

with just enough of everything, food, drivers, volunteers, so thank you to all.

We especially wish to thank our cooks, packers and drivers, who spend

hours before the holidays helping us out. We wish you all a year of health,

happiness, parnassah tova and please keep us in mind for next year, our

Rosh HaShana Initiative will be on Labor day!

Cindy Hodkin and Nechama Liss-Levinson, co-chairs,