Staff of Masbia, a New York-based, Orthodox Jewish-run food network, traveled to Jackson, Kentucky, this week, to assist victims of catastrophic flooding in the area.

The anchors of CBS New York, Michelle Miller, Dana Jacobson, and Jeff Glor, introduce reporter Nancy Chen with the camera of Luisa Garcia at Target in the Bronx. Alexander Rapaport, ED of Masbia, took some of the families affected by the Bronx fire to buy all that they needed because the fire destroyed their belongings. The fire also took some residents' lives. Masbia Team Relief is raising money to take the remainder of families that have loose everything during the fire.

The Bronx building fire affected 118 families who lived there, with 17 dead, and many more injured. The Need is URGENT! We are now inviting families who are victims of the historic Bronx fire to go shopping for clothing, housewares, cleaning supplies, etc. 

Within a few hours of the historic Bronx High Rise Building Fire, the Masbia Relief Team was there bringing relief and comfort to the residents of the building on behalf of the Jewish community. We teamed up with local organizations and sent seven SUVs full of supplies from Brooklyn to the Bronx. We even set up a mini kitchen with an outdoor tent and a propane stove. We distributed toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, towels, cookies, cakes, sodas, and hot dinners consisting of chicken, rice and soup. Masbia came back the next morning with more supplies, and hot food, and teamed up with the local mosque that turned into a local relief hub for victims of the fire. The Need is URGENT! We are now inviting families to go shopping for clothing, housewares, cleaning supplies, etc. We need your help to be able to invite more families to go shopping. 

Masbia, a nonprofit kosher soup kitchen network, and food pantry sent volunteers and a truck filled with grocery items for the victims who were displaced in the Bronx fire. The founder and director, Alexander Rappaport, is a Viznitz Hasid who created Masbia to have an attractive and clean restaurant where any hungry New Yorker can eat a free kosher meal. To keep the meals free from charge, no registers are kept onsite. Over two million meals a year get served to people of all backgrounds and religions in their three NYC locations.

“In this particular incident, we were needed for relief in the first few hours, helping people with food and toiletries, and we stayed on-site for a couple of hours until everyone got what they wanted,” said Motty Brauner, coordinator of Shomrim of Boro Park.