Volunteers from across the community came together on Jan. 28 for the debut of Jewish Family Service’s kosher meal delivery program.

The project took place during the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley’s Super Sunday Community Mitzvah Day.

In the days leading up to Super Sunday, the Jewish Day School made minestrone soup, packaged in containers decorated by students. Members of Congregation Brith Sholom cooked up a delicious rice salad and cookies. And Congregation Keneseth Israel purchased and donated enough challah for everyone.

Early that Sunday morning, PJ Library families reported to the JCC kitchen to make chocolate chip cookies for the food packages. The kids added the flour, sugar and eggs before placing the cookies on baking sheets ready for the oven.

The next crew arrived at noon and got to work shredding carrots, mixing green beans and preparing a “Shabbat Chicken” dish. Many of the ingredients were donated by Giant, Wegmans and Costco. The recipes used were courtesy of Carol Wilson, coordinator of older adult services, who organized the project.

With everything cooking, the final group of volunteers arrived to package the food and make the deliveries. 

They filled 25 bags with each of the dishes, along with a menu complete with reheating instructions, and set off to meet the older adults who would be receiving the meals in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.

In Allentown, Yitzi Powers, Daniela Viale and her children joined Carol for three deliveries.

In one client’s apartment, Yitzi put the food in the refrigerator while Carol explained the bag’s contents.

“I’m going to be eating it all week you know,” the client told her.

We are planning our next meal delivery around Shavuot in May. If you are interested in helping, contact Volunteer Coordinator Chelsea Karp at 610-821-8722 or ckarp@jfslv.org or fill out this form.