amp shortcomings show n

ad Ezra's kosher pantry.

SheIli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer

A

s executive director of Yad Ezra,
Michigan's only kosher food
pantry, Lea Luger encounters
Jewish Detroiters who are hungry on a
near-daily basis. And last month, Luger
put herself in their place — by living
off the amount of food that food stamps
would have provided her. The exercise
was created in an effort to better under-
stand the hardships of clients, but also to
emphasize the importance of agencies, like
Yad Ezra, that provide items beyond what
food stamp allotments supply.
For one week in December, Luger and
her husband, Richard, and their 14-year-
old son, Ben, ate only food items that were
purchased with the amount of money
that would have been allotted to them if
they had to rely only on U.S. government-
issued food stamps for groceries.
"Most people don't understand that the
amount allocated to individuals and fami-
lies who use food stamps is not enough to
buy nutritious, diverse meals:' said Luger,
who also was joined in the project by two
of the Berkley-based Yad Ezra executive
board members and their families.
"Eighty percent of our clients are
on food stamps;' said Luger of West
Bloomfield. "Yad Ezra was founded [in
19901 to provide free groceries to low-
income Jewish families because we knew
that what they purchased with food
stamps was not enough food."
Today, Yad Ezra assists 1,100 families
— more than 2,500 individuals — every
month, with 850,000 pounds of food dis-
tributed each year on an $800,000 budget.
Without government or agency fund-

ing, Yad Ezra is
for the distribution
sustained solely on
of toiletries and other
donations and relies
items that food stamps
on its small staff and
do not cover, like soap,
its core of 125 regular
deodorant, shampoo,
volunteers.
feminine products and
"Through this gen-
cleaning goods:' said
erosity, our monthly
Ragen Rockwell, food
distributed client
and nutrition special-
COMMUNITY CARE
packages have grown
ist at the Center for
from non-perishables
Civil Justice Food and
alone to items like chicken, ground meat,
Nutrition Helpline in Flint, which offers
bread, cottage cheese and margarine,"
food stamp assistance.
Luger said. Yad Ezra also provides an
"They are also there for those who have
annual lunch assistance program for 80
a sudden, one-time need for a food and
Jewish day school students.
merchandise package." With a policy to
In addition to supplementing what
not turn away anyone, Yad Ezra will even
clients receive from food
serve non-Jewish indi-
Richard Luger and son Ben
stamp purchases, "emer-
viduals one time and
make lunch wi th foods pur-
gency food providers,
then refer them to other
chased during the weeklong
like Yad Ezra, are vital
agencies.

Staff photos by Angie Baan

food stamp project.

Although there are other agencies in
Michigan that provide supplemental food
packages to clients who use food stamps,
Yad Ezra is the only kosher food pantry in
the state. Much of Yad Ezra's distribution
items come from Gleaners Community
Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan,
whose items are sold to Yad Ezra at
greatly reduced prices, or donated, if the
items had first been donated to Gleaners.
Occasionally foods — like produce
and sealed kosher items — come from
Forgotten Harvest, a food rescue agency,
who provides them at no charge.
And because Yad Ezra staff shops in
bulk, watches for sales and buys whole-
sale, their costs are less than half what a
client would spend on comparable items
at the supermarket, allowing them to
purchase more food for more clients.

Living Day By Day
Each person who participated in the
food stamp exercise with Luger, received
less than $5 a day to spend on their food
items. Although the amount of food
stamp benefits is typically dependant on
the number of people in a household and
their income, each person in the project
received the maximum amount for their
size family. "There are many people with
households the same sizes as ours whose
allocation is less:' Lea said.
At first, she didn't actually plan to par-
take in the project, but instead looked to
enlist members of the Yad Ezra board.
Incoming President Allan Sefton of
Beverly Hills and Yad Ezra Vice President
Richard Simtob of Farmington Hills both
stepped forward with their families.
But when Luger's son Ben, a fresh-
man at the Frankel Jewish Academy of

January 4 • 2007

13

