JFS Perspectives

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

This week, we received some beautiful baskets of food and toiletries from the sixth grade religious school class at Congregation Beth Evergreen. Nineteen students bagged rice and held a food drive for items needed in the Weinberg Food Pantry. In honor of Purim this week, they made cards and put the items into colorful baskets.

Thank you to Gareth Heyman, a longtime supporter of JFS and member of Beth Evergreen, for connecting their religious school with our volunteer department for this project!

If your family or group is looking for some fun, easy ways to help JFS, check out the Family and Group volunteer page on our website and contact Nancy Benyamin, director of volunteer services, at 720.248.4642 before starting your project.

-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

When our Weinberg Food Pantry operations coordinator, Chad Livermore, said he was taking a week vacation earlier this month, our staff panicked about who would drive the truck each morning to pick up food donations from local grocery stores. Then we realized that we have an amazing group of volunteers who would probably be able to pitch in! We asked for help and six people stepped up!

 

From 7 to 9 each morning, one of our regular Pantry volunteers, Aubrey Knight, drove the truck and the following volunteers helped him load and unload the truck:

• Debra Reinhard
• Elizabeth Cossin
• John Kayser
• Suzanne Rothman
• Gary Friedland

Check out this video of Aubrey, live from the truck, talking about why he has volunteered in the Pantry for the past four years with other members of Calvary Baptist Church.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped while Chad was on vacation. He is well-rested from his much-needed vacation!

In other volunteer news...

On October 16th, a group of volunteers will be in the Food Pantry to sort food donated from synagogues during the High Holy Days. Also, JFS is one of 20 local charities that will offer hands-on service projects during the General Assembly Day of Service on Sunday, November 6th. 

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

Yesterday we joined 13 other volunteers at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Cannery in Aurora to can pinto beans for the Weinberg Food Pantry. Upon arrival, before entering the canning area, we were instructed to put on hair nets and then watched an orientation video about the facility's safety rules and regulations. After putting on the proper canning attire and thoroughly washing our hands, we were each assigned a job on the assembly line.

Before we got there, the Cannery staff cooked pinto beans in two giant vats. Kari's job was to work with another volunteer, Joel, to scoop the cooked beans out of the vats into smaller vessels, which were then poured onto the area where the beans were put in cans. "It was hot and steamy in my area, but instead of complaining, I decided it was good for my skin and thought of it as a free facial!" Kari says.

There was a semi-automated area where empty aluminum cans dropped down to a work area where two people put salt pellets in the bottom of each can before they moved on the conveyer belt to be filled with beans. Alaina worked with four other people to fill the cans with the right amount of beans before they moved on to get topped off with water. "It was tricky to get each can to be the precise weight before the cans moved away from us on the belt!" Alaina says.



The Cannery staff weighed three cans every 15 minutes and took an average weight to tell us if we needed to adjust the amount of beans we put in. After awhile, we got the hang of it and found that the beans needed to be filled to just below the second ridge in the can. "This process gave me a deeper appreciation for factory workers!" Alaina adds.



After the cans were filled with beans and water, they moved along the conveyer belt where lids were placed on top of the cans and sealed. Then three other volunteers placed the cans into a cart where they cooled. 30 minutes later, we started the process of labeling and boxing the cans while other volunteers cleaned up the wet pack canning area with high-pressure steam hoses. After everything was completed, we even got to sample our work!



Thank you to the LDS Cannery for donating the beans, the use of the facility, and all of the materials! After three hours of hard work, we had produced 2,400 cans of beans to be distributed at our Weinberg Food Pantry. While it was hard work, remembering that we were feeding families in need with this product was a rewarding feeling!



At the end, some of us stayed for a tour of the impressive facility that includes a food pantry, LDS Family Services, and warehouses full of supplies to be used during natural disasters. We learned a lot from Eric Sawyer, field specialist, and Sister Janelle Norris, a church volunteer!

JFS volunteers go to the Cannery four to six times a year and can different products ranging from applesauce, to beans, to peaches to benefit the Weinberg Food Pantry. If you would like to participate in this unique opportunity, please contact Nancy Benyamin, director of volunteer services at (303) 597.5000 x369.

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

Last month we told you we needed to raise $7,000 to provide Passover food to families served by the Weinberg Food Pantry. In our last Passover post, we showed you how hard our Family Safety Net staff worked to find the best prices and Kosher for Passover food.



We're happy to report that, with your help, we raised $8,000 and provided Passover food to 178 individuals! In addition to the money we received, several businesses generously donated food such as produce, eggs, and cinnamon.



Thank you to our many volunteers who helped pack, distribute, and deliver the meals! We had groups from several religious schools and youth groups, as well as families and individuals who helped us out on two different days last week.



We're proud of the community for coming together in this effort and we can't thank you enough!

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department