North America’s oldest Jewish congregation is celebrating America turning 250 years old by partnering with a kosher soup kitchen network to open an annex in their complex.

For over a decade, Congregation Shearith Israel, together with other faith-based organizations, had held an annual “packathon” on Thanksgiving morning, where attendees watched the parade from one side of the synagogue and packed food for those in need on the other.

This year, during the packathon, they announced that Masbia had been invited to open a food pantry annex on the synagogue’s premises. The congregation will also help to raise funds to keep the pantry’s shelves stocked, as well as helping with volunteering, and achieve the goal of opening for food distribution before the start of Chanukkah, in other words, before the end of the year.

Masbia leveraged its partnerships with DoorDash, the Plentiful app (offering digital bread-line appointments in ten languages), and its network of kosher food vendors who donated regularly for this expansion, its first site in Manhattan and fourth overall. The organization is relying on crowdfunding and a broad base of individual donors to sustain operations. They hope that this new location will become a beacon of hope for families facing food insecurity on the Upper West Side.

Help support the new Masbia Annex by clicking here.

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