Lifestyle/Community
Help to make special for old souls
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, members of the Union of Jewish Women (UJW) assisted Meals on Wheels, which was being run by a church in Yeoville. They discovered that there were Jewish recipients who felt forced to accept non-kosher food as there was nowhere they could get kosher food. Most of them were housebound and lonely.
OWN CORRESPONDENT
The UJW identified 14 people desperate for cooked kosher food. It approached Jewish organisations to help solve the problem, but none were forthcoming.
So, the UJW undertook to do it themselves, and in 1972 Kosher Mobile Meals was born. The old-aged home in Sandringham provides the freshly cooked food that was delivered by kombi to the elderly.
In the early days, deliveries were made three times a week. Volunteers filled paper cups with soup, and tried to secure the lids using sticky tape. The Kosher Mobile Meal’s kombi was driven to Berea, Hillbrow, Joubert Park, and the city centre. Volunteers took the food in baskets to recipients, while those in the kombi got the next lot of baskets ready.
There were many incidents – some sad and some happy – but over the past 46 years, Kosher Mobile Meals has ensured that elderly and frail individuals are visited and given nourishing food. The service now caters for about 150 recipients.
The costs for Pesach increase every year. This year, the UJW invites you to assist it in making Pesach special for its recipients. By making a donation as small as R100, you will be entered into a draw to win one of 11 fabulous prizes, including a return ticket to Israel on Ethiopian Airlines, jewellery, vouchers, a food warming hostess, and other incredible prizes. To make a donation, call 011 648 1053, or email info@ujw.co.za.