Vivian H•noch

metro

More Than A Food Pantry

Yad Ezra is a community, fighting hunger
and doing it for Detroit.

Vivian Henoch

Special to the Jewish News

I

n terms of the sheer quantity and qual-
ity of the food it provides daily from its
16,000-square-foot warehouse on 11
Mile in Berkley, Yad Ezra works more like a
food bank than a food pantry
"We're exceptional in so many ways:' says
Executive Director Lea Luger.
"We're Michigan's only kosher food pan-
try. We're a volunteer-driven organization.
We purchase most of the food we provide.
We deliver! We have a drive-thru window.
And we're a great place to host community
events!"
In the spirit of friendly competition
between three worthy nonprofits fight-
ing hunger, more than 75 people recently
gathered at Yad Ezra to "Do It for Detroit"
(Di4D), a program hosted in partnership
with Federation's NEXTGen Detroit and
Repair the World, a national Jewish service
organization.
A spin on grassroots philanthropy, the

event was a final round in a series of micro-
grant allocations from the Do It For Detroit
Fund for volunteer-based initiatives in the
community. Past Di4D events highlighted
organizations focusing on issues related to
health, education and the environment.
Chosen from a field of more than a dozen
applicants, the three finalists each pitched
their initiative to the audience. All those in
attendance were invited to cast their votes to
determine the first, second and third place
recipients of micro-grants of $3,000, $1,000
and $500 respectively.

The Results

• $3,000 to Rita Ethington's Ministry of
Helps, presented by Janice Smith. From
its humble start delivering sandwiches
and bagged lunches to the homeless in the
Cass Corridor, the ministry now serves
families, children and seniors weekly
out of the Diehl Boys and Girls Club on
Collingwood near Dexter. Choosing nutri-
tious foods, fruits and vegetables, ordered
and picked up from Gleaners Food Bank,

the ministry is run entirely
by volunteers. The grant will
be used to purchase a freezer
to store meats and a desk
copier for paperwork, with
any surplus to be placed on a
credit account at Gleaners to
pay monthly bills.
• $1,000 to Heart 2 Hart,
presented by Larry Oleinick
with Mark Jacobs. Serving
the forgotten homeless and
needy population of the city,
a handful of volunteers go
into the streets of Detroit,
Nancy Kleinfeldt, Dave Jaffee, Lea Luger
starting at Hart Plaza three
days a week, rain or shine,
Matthew Bode with master gardener
Kathleen Devlin. Organized in the sum-
to distribute lunches, clothing, toiletries
and encouragement. In partnership with
mer of 2007 to increase food availability
in the Spirit of Hope neighborhood, Spirit
Southwest Solutions, Heart 2 Hart also
assists people in getting properly identi-
Farm has transformed a blighted corner
fied and into temporary housing. Funds
into an urban garden in Midtown. Spirit
will be used to stretch the budget for food,
Farm is rooting itself to be an exciting
socks, underwear and toiletries.
place for education, fresh food distribution
• $500 to Spirit Farm, presented by
and community fellowship. Funds will be

Crime Afert

Two local
families'
homes
robbed while
they were
at funerals.

Michael Higer

JN Intern

W

hen we are mourning the
loss of a loved one, the wall
protecting our vulnerability
collapses. Suddenly we are left weak,
defenseless; but we never believe that
anybody would test that — because we
trust; not only our friends and family,
but the community around us.
For a couple of Oakland County resi-
dents, their trust was broken in April.

30 July 24 • 2014

The first victim (who prefers her
name be left out) had just lost her
father-in-law. His funeral was April 18
at Ira Kaufman Memorial Chapel in
Southfield. After being away from the
house for over eight hours, the victim's
husband noticed oil spots when pulling
onto their driveway. The handle was
locked to their garage door going into
their laundry room, something they do
not usually do, but they were able to
explain it away.
"My older son is from out of town.

Whenever he's in, he usually locks the
bottom handle because that's what he
does at his house, so I just assumed he
did it by accident," the victim said.
The next morning, her husband was
leaving to go to the gym. That's when he
noticed somebody had broken into their
house.
"When he left the next morning, he
noticed all these bangs on the door. The
door jamb where the metal plate that
the lock goes into was totally gone, it
was cracked — it's like they put the door

jamb back together," she said.
They immediately went to check a
dresser drawer where they keep an enve-
lope with small bills of cash and found
that empty.
Surprisingly, two laptops sitting on
the kitchen table were left untouched.
The family called the Oakland County
Sherriff who said there wasn't much he
could do as they had already contami-
nated the evidence and only a couple
hundred dollars was taken.
When the woman was getting dressed
to go to shivah, she noticed something
else strange. All of her jewelry boxes had
been looked through and then put back
neatly to make it look like nobody had
touched them. She discovered a match-
ing necklace and earrings were missing.
The victim speculates that the thieves
had used the obituary posted in the
Detroit News and Detroit Free Press to
know when the family would be out of
the house.
The following Wednesday, the victim
received a phone call from her friend
who had been at a different shivah and
met Barbara Stern, who said the same
incident occurred at her house while the
family was at a funeral.
Stern, a West Bloomfield resident, lost
her mother on April 17, but because of
Pesach, she was not buried until April
20. The obituary was posted in the
Detroit Free Press and online. Stern also