JFS Perspectives

 

Our Community Passover Program has enjoyed many years of success, with the support from the community and the many volunteers that come together to pack, distribute, and deliver the Passover boxes in the Weinberg Food Pantry. This year, the Family Safety Net staff received a special treat. With their hearts set on helping others enjoy the Passover holiday, the staff members often get caught up in the business of Passover; this year they were given the opportunity to learn the meaning behind the holiday.

Nancy Benyamin and Beth Lippa, two dedicated JFS employees from the volunteer services department, prepared a Seder for the Family Safety Net staff, who are all non-Jewish, to teach them about Passover and the meaning behind the yearly celebration.

That wasn’t the only surprise the staff received during Passover. We were happy to learn that many of the families that we have provided kosher-for-Passover food to in past years didn’t need our services this year. Through new employment and improved living situations, these families and individuals were able to purchase their own kosher-for-Passover food. While JFS will always be around to help those in need, we are happy to hear when family situations improve.

-Renee Miller, JFS Marketing Department

This month, many generous individuals, organizations, and corporations collected holiday gifts for JFS clients. Through our Bright Holidays program, 533 individuals received hand-picked gifts such as clothing, toys, electronics, sports equipment, and other items on their wish lists.


Walgreens staff: First row, L to R: Clete Morton and Amber Hodges
Standing: Ken Wood, Peter Stur, and Jed Andrews

In addition, we had help from a new partner this year; five area Walgreens stores collected toys for the program. The Walgreens team delivered 12 large boxes of brand new toys that were donated by Walgreens employees and customers.

The gifts came from various individuals, groups, and businesses or organizations. Check out the stats below!

533 individuals received gifts:

• 263 individuals were adopted at our office
• Lockheed Martin’s Operation Santa Claus gave food and toys to 77 of our clients
• The SHALOM Denver TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) program received toys for 93 children
• Nearly 100 people received toys when visiting the Weinberg Food Pantry

A boy in the food pantry showing off the gift he chose


Another boy in the food pantry choosing gifts for himself and siblings

7 large businesses adopted families:

• Allied Jewish Federation
• Holland & Hart
• Lockheed Martin
• The Westin Downtown
• Walgreens
• Pioneer Natural Resources USA
• Wealth Concepts

Representatives from Holland & Hart bring their gifts to our truck


Representatives from Holland & Hart pose with JFS staffer
Chad Livermore (2nd from left) after loading gifts into the truck

7 groups and synagogue groups adopted families:

• The Sisterhood at Congregation Emanuel
• Beth Evergreen
• B’nai Havurah
• Several book clubs and office friends

45 other individuals and family groups adopted families


Shelly Hines, Family Safety Net director, poses with gifts for SHALOM Denver

A big thank you to Shelley Kolman (pictured above), Family Safety Net administrative assistant, for all her hard work organizing the collection and distribution of the gifts!

Thank you to everyone who adopted a family and helped make their holidays brighter! Happy Holidays and New Year from all of us at JFS.

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

Want to help improve the health—and access to healthcare—of individuals and families across Metro Denver?

Boomers Leading Change in Health (BLCiH) is seeking to engage full- and half-time AmeriCorps Members age 50+ to serve as Patient Navigators, Community Health Workers, and Volunteer Coordinator Assistants in Host Site Organizations throughout our community. Your term of service will begin in November 2012.

Jewish Family Service will offer two half-time Healthcare Navigator positions, one in our JFS Senior Solutions department and one in our Family Safety Net department. Each position will be a total of 900 hours—an average of 20 hours per week for 11 months.

Applicants must be at least 50 years of age to be considered, but adults 55+ are preferred. All members will receive extensive training, a modest living allowance, and an education award at completion of service.

Read all the details, including how to apply: AmeriCorps Job Announcement 2012-13

Jewish Family Service is a great place to work, so we hope you will apply!

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

Earlier this week, we hosted a cocktail reception to celebrate Elaine and Max Appels' incredible generosity in supporting the vulnerable in our community.



About 40 guests came to watch the big reveal of the new sign that bears the couple's name in the atrium at Jewish Family Service and to thank Elaine and Max for supporting JFS. Everyone also enjoyed Spanish hors d'oeuvres and cocktails catered by La Vie.



Yana Vishnitsky, JFS President & CEO, and Alan Mayer, JFS Board Chair, each spoke about the Appels' philanthropic contributions and how their support will help sustain the agency for years to come. Elaine and Max gave heartfelt thanks for this honor. See a clip of Elaine's speech below:

Thank you to everyone who attended! The sign looks beautiful and we hope you'll check it out next time you're in the building.

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

Here are some exciting things that have happened around JFS so far this month:

On May 6, Sara Leeper from SHALOM Denver, and Inna Oganesyan from the JFS New Americans department, attended a Rose Youth Foundation celebration for grantees. JFS received $10,000 for its citizenship program and SHALOM Denver received $6,000 to increase community employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.


Sara Leeper, Sara Goldstein from Rose Youth Foundation, and Inna Oganesyan.

On May 8, the JFS Executive Luncheon raised a record $468,000—$156,000 more than last year— to support all programs of JFS, including mental health counseling, senior and adult in-home care, disability and employment services, and family safety net services. Read the full story and view event photos!

On Friday, May 11, Denver Jewish Day School seventh graders volunteered in the pantry as part of their study on homelessness. They arrived at the pantry and gave the regular volunteers a break while they performed all their duties, including unloading the truck from the morning’s pickups at grocery stores, stocking the shelves, and organizing the pantry.

On May 12, Temple Sinai eighth graders held a fundraiser for the Weinberg Food Pantry and Lone Soldier called “Food Fight 4 A-WEAR-NESS.” The event included the world-famous rapper Kosha Dllz, DJs and breakdancers, a fashion show, a professional Flatland BMX demo, an on-site photo booth, educational presentations, food, refreshments, dessert, and more! In total, they donated 374 pounds of food and bagged 120 pounds of rice for the food pantry. In addition, they gave us 100 Fazzoli’s meal coupons to hand out to clients.

Here’s to a successful rest of the month!

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

We had quite an eventful week at Jewish Family Service and SHALOM Denver! While there are always exciting things happening in our agency on a daily basis, below are a few things we think you'll especially enjoy:

Yesterday, CBS4 Denver aired an inspirational story about the wonderful work SHALOM Denver does to help transition people from welfare to work. View this story and learn more about the program!  Thank you to Xstatic Public Relations for working with CBS4 and our staff to get this story on TV!


Heidi Pittaway, who is featured in the CBS4 story, with her daughters

Also yesterday, BBYO hosted a pre-screening of the popular movie The Hunger Games for Jewish youth in 6th-12th grade. To show that "hunger is not a game," the teens had to bring at a minimum of three canned food items to benefit the JFS Weinberg Food Pantry for admission. And in the spirit of the competition shown in the movie, BBYO had a contest to see which of their chapters would bring the most food. In total, the teens collected 2,200 pounds of food for our pantry! Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make an incredible impact on the lives of people who are in need.


Teens contribute food to their chapters' food bins at the theater

Earlier this week, we said goodbye to Amy Wood who left JFS after nearly 20 years of involvement with the agency. Amy actually started as a JFS board member in 1996 and held various positions including volunteer, intern, case manager, Family Safety Net program director, and finally government and community affairs director. We had a great party to toast (and roast) Amy and her love of flip charts, decision trees, and Venn Diagrams! Her energy, talent, and dedication will be missed!


Shelly Hines, Family Safety Net director, with Amy Wood


Amy's Tenure Timeline posted at the party in honor of her love of flip charts

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

Last month, many generous individuals, organizations, and corporations collected holiday gifts for JFS clients. Through our Bright Holidays program, 432 individuals received hand-picked gifts such as clothing, toys, electronics, sports equipment, and other items on their wish lists. This is a significant increase from last year’s total of 308!

The gifts came from 65 individuals, groups, and businesses or organizations, which was also a large increase from 37 last year. Thank you to all the individuals and the following organizations for their generosity: Graland Country Day School, Cherry Creek High School, El Jebel Shrine, Greenwood Elementary School Book Club, Havurah Mosaic, Meritage Energy Company, Holland and Hart, Allied Jewish Federation, Denver Westin, and the Operation Santa Claus program at Lockheed Martin.

In addition, the Sisterhood of Temple Emanuel collected toys and gift cards from the Sunday school students that we distributed to 132 of SHALOM Denver's TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) clients at a holiday party. UMB Bank also provided 50 $10 gift cards to Target and King Soopers for these families to buy additional gifts.

Many JFS staff members also contributed gifts for this party and adopted families for Bright Holidays. "It always amazes me that our staff members are the first to contribute gifts for this program!" says Yana Vishnitsky, JFS president and CEO. "Even though nonprofit employees are not known for making a lot of money, they continue to exceed my expectations with their generosity!"

We appreciate everyone's compassion to make the holidays brighter for those in need! Ralitsa Ranova, JFS International KidSuccess school-based therapist, said, "I had the chance to see great joy in the eyes of my clients when they got their gifts." There are countless stories we wish we could share about how thankful all the families were for the outpouring of support from so many in the community.

Shelley Kolman, JFS Family Safety Net administrative assistant who helped with the Bright Holidays program, said, "Many people referred other family members and friends to adopt. We had one individual recruit five families to adopt people for the program, who then each adopted several families of all sizes including one family of 12. I was blown away by all the new donors that came forward this year!"

And last, but not least, thank you to Westword for donating 554 pounds of food and $250 in gift cards for clients of the Weinberg Food Pantry through their annual holiday drive!

 

Thank you to Andrea Stillman (pictured above) and all our volunteers who helped organize all the gifts!

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

 

Thank you to everyone who donated food to the Weinberg Food Pantry during our High Holy Day food drive! Congregants from the following synagogues donated nearly 12,000 pounds of food: B'nai Chaim, Beth Evergreen, Hebrew Educational Alliance (HEA), Rodef Shalom, Temple Emanuel, Temple Micah, and Temple Sinai. Your generosity is greatly appreciated by those in need!

After the food is donated, it takes a team of people to help sort it all to be placed on the Pantry shelves. With a little help from our staff, volunteers from HEA's JConnect group as well as Bar and Bat Mitzvah students and their parents, spent a Sunday morning organizing all the donations. We know it's a big (and dirty) job and we greatly appreciate the help!

 

And now that this food drive is over, we're starting to collect for Thanksgiving to help feed families who otherwise wouldn't be able to enjoy a holiday feast. If you are interested in helping this cause, please contribute any of the following items or provide a complete holiday meal for one family (the average cost is $36): Frozen turkeys, gravy mix, sweet potatoes, canned cranberry sauce, canned pumpkin pie filling, stuffing mix, canned vegetables, instant mashed potatoes, aluminum foil roasting pans, and grocery store gift cards.

Because we can stretch your dollar by purchasing items at a reduced cost, we prefer cash donations. Please donate now (indicate "Holiday Meals" in the "Tribute Text" box) or bring food donations to JFS, 3201 South Tamarac Drive in Denver, by Wednesday, November 16.

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

You may have seen Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill employees with their mobile "Soup Kitchen" around town lately sampling their new soups. They are doing this to introduce their Soup for Soup Exchange happening this weekend.

For this promotion, you can bring a can of soup (or canned good) to a Denver area Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill October 21-23 to get a free cup of soup. Denver donations go to the Jewish Family Service Weinberg Food Pantry!

This morning, Garbanzo employees brought soup to the Weinberg Food Pantry for our clients to taste since we are a recipient of this food drive. The soup was a big hit and you can taste it this weekend when you bring in a can of soup to any Garbanzo location!

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

 

When Azteca Ranch Market recently closed its Denver location, the store owner, Hermine Blau, generously donated 9,000 pounds of food and other products to the JFS Weinberg Food Pantry!  Staff members from the Family Safety Net department took several trips to the store and spent about 24 man-hours to empty the shelves.

We received a variety of items including baby food, juice, paper products and cleaning supplies, tortillas and tortilla chips, cereal, cultural and ethnic foods, and more. To put 9,000 pounds in perspective, the Food Pantry averages about 18,000 pounds of donated food each month from  various grocery stores.

Shelly Hines, Family Safety Net director, says, “This was a very significant donation. With all of the cuts in federal and state funding, we couldn’t operate at our current level without the generosity of our donors. As the need for food has increased, we have had to think creatively about new sources for nutritious food. This donation included all the quality foods we like to put on our shelves and well as a variety of fun extras that we don’t usually have. We appreciate the generosity of the store and the abundance of the donation!” 

 

The JFS staff helped sort the items and we have already distributed more than half of the food to our Food Pantry clients. Now we are gearing up for our Thanksgiving food drive - look for more details coming soon about how you can help!

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department