The journey probably started many years ago when I was fortunate to build the largest Jewish Facebook group in the world.  That has helped me reach and have a voice to tens of thousands of people.

 

But it was really a busy evening in March, what started it all, before anyone really yet knew or understood the impact and result of the pandemic here in NY. 

 

It was a post among hundreds of posts about food, but this one was different.  It was from a nurse in the ICU who was reaching out and telling us that she has been working all day long on COVID patients and she was asking for a recommendation of where to get food.  Realizing the moment, I offered to send her food from Izzy's Fried Chicken nearby. She was of course appreciative and made a further post about what her and her colleagues have been going through. It gave me the idea that here we have men and women literally saving people's lives and we had to do something to make it easier for them.  Because I work with many restaurants around the country, who were struggling financially themselves, I put it out there for my readers to help donate and raise money for us to send food from restaurants to health care workers on the front lines. We partnered up with a non for profit, wonderful organization, called Fountain of Kindness and together we mobilized volunteers and donations to help see this through, raising tens of thousands of dollars. This allowed us to support these restaurants and at the same time help those who were working non stop, on their feet and didn't have time to make food, bring food, order food. I was then happy to see many in our industry follow suit and do the same and it became a movement that everyone was on board with.

 

At the same time we saw that many families, in the hundreds and thousands were struggling themselves, and were in need of food.  Masbia Soup Kitchen in Brooklyn reached out to us and thankfully my readers stepped up and we raised over $30,000 in donations over a span of a few months towards helping them feed those less fortunate.

 

 

Unfortunately, there were still families that either could not get to these soup kitchens, or their requests were denied because funds were maxed out, so we started a grassroots initiative and a whatsapp chat of volunteers who would be able to cook for those families who didn't have food for Shabbos, Pesach, Shavuos and during the week.  We were getting requests from all over and we said we wouldn't turn anyone away and would not ask questions.  If you need help, we are here. I know we can't help everyone, but we will surely try. And so that's what we've been doing for months, in between work and family, just trying to help and make a difference. 

 

I hope that things get better but there will always be need to help others. I guess we all have to have Emunah.