More than 250 UJA-Federation of New York Westchester volunteers from across the county helped brighten the holidays for families facing food insecurity and local teens and seniors who are residential clients at three UJA nonprofit partners. The celebrations, all part of UJA’s Gift of Hanukkah initiative, were held Dec. 8.
More than 50 families gathered to pack 200 holiday baking kits, providing staple items not typically found at a food pantry, to be donated to the clients of UJA nonprofit partner Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. The event, chaired by Beth Altschuler of Scarsdale, Amie Eglit of Harrison, Kim Goldberg of Larchmont, Natasha Hanan of Chappaqua, Rikki Javitch of Harrison and Alana Pero of Armonk, is part of UJA Westchester’s Young Families initiative, which brings together like-minded, philanthropic young families who, like UJA, are devoted to helping people in need.
Residents of Kittay House, an independent senior living facility in the Bronx run by UJA nonprofit partner The New Jewish Home, enjoyed an afternoon of Bingo, crafts and snacks. This event was chaired by Jill Goldfein, Audi Schub and Anya Wiebke, all residents of New Rochelle.
“UJA’s Gift of Hanukkah program is one way that we do tikkun olam, to make the world a better place,” said Schub. “That’s a big part of what we do.”
Teens at the Edenwald Center in Pleasantville and the Sally and Anthony Mann Center in Hawthorne, run by UJA nonprofit partners JCCA and The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, respectively, were visited by teens from J-Teen Leadership, a program of UJA-Federation. Together the teens celebrated the holidays by painting faces and nails, applying temporary tattoos, decorating cookies, and playing Bingo and dreidel games. J-Teen Leadership volunteers Eli Makaron and Tyler Plank of Briarcliff Manor and Jordan Rosen of Pleasantville chaired the events.
UJA-Federation supports a network of hundreds of nonprofit organizations large and small that provide food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, independence for the elderly, jobs for the unemployed, and stimulating education programs for people in New York, in Israel, and in nearly 70 countries.
