By Debbie Zoller
Executive Director

Super Sunday was “souper” in more than one way, as we collaborated with the Jewish Federation to launch a pilot project for a kosher “Meals on Wheels” program. 

As older adults age in their homes, they frequently don’t have the energy or physical strength to cook homemade food. Jewish older adults long for the taste of their favorite Jewish foods and enjoy reminiscing about their own life experiences. Clinical Coordinator of Older Adult Services Carol Wilson’s vision of bringing meals to older adults in their homes became a reality on Jan. 28 with a lot of community collaboration.

What a pleasure to watch the involvement of so many volunteers, including children, Lehigh University Hillel students, JCC and synagogue members. Some of these volunteers said they love to cook and would be glad to do this again. This is a great opportunity for inter-generational families to share recipes, cook together and visit older adults in their homes and create new memories.

Prior to Super Sunday, the Jewish Day School prepared and packaged a minestrone soup to start off the meal. The cooks from Brith Sholom delivered a hearty rice salad. At the JCC kitchen, volunteers prepared Shabbat chicken, carrot soufflé and roasted green beans. Keneseth Israel supplied challah and the PJ Library children prepared chocolate chip cookies. The Federation supplied canvas bags to hold the delivered meals. Costco, Giant and Wegmans generously supported the project.

After, when the meals were assembled in bags, volunteers were assigned to deliver a meal to 25 selected older adults in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. The delivery of these meals is a way to reach out to an older adult who may welcome a visit as much as the food.

The day after Super Sunday, JFS and the Federation received such positive feedback from the meal recipients: “The food was delicious.” “It was so nice to have Jewish kosher food delivered to my door.” “When are you going to do this again?”

Thank you to everyone who was involved in this awesome project!

JFS would like to do this project at least four times a year with the idea of connecting it to specific holidays. The next project will take place in May for Shavuot. If you know an older adult who would benefit from having a special meal delivery, please contact Carol Wilson at cwilson@jfslv.org. If you would like to be involved with this program by shopping, cooking or delivering meals, please contact JFS Volunteer Coordinator Chelsea Karp at ckarp@jfslv.org or visit www.jfslv.org/volunteer. For more information, call 610-821-8722.