Surge in Demand for Food Assistance Ahead of Pesach

YERUSHALAYIM – Many Israelis who have never before sought food assistance for Pesach are finding their way to aid organizations and soup kitchens this year amid sharp rises in the cost of living.

“It took me a very long time to work up the courage and turn to help because I was always on the side of the helpers,” Sophie Ackerman-Rimony, a 44-year-old mother of six, told Ynet on Wednesday.

“In the end, when there are six children in the house and they need food, you make such decisions fairly quickly,” she said.

She was among the thousands of small business owners who were devastated by the coronavirus crisis and still struggling to recover.

“The cost of living has only risen, the repeated lockdowns have not made it possible to look for a permanent job because my children were forced to remain at home all the time,” she added.

Shani Granot, 47, a single mother of four children, also found herself needing help, even though she works full time as an assistant to a child with special needs, and is entitled to a disability stipend.

“Since prices have risen, even the little I could buy before, I can’t afford anymore… I’m still not sure how we will celebrate Pesach,” she told Ynet.

“I’m not talking about buying the kids something nice to wear for the holiday. That is a luxury. I’m talking about food – the most basic thing. I find myself mulling over whether to buy food or pay rent, whether to buy toothpaste or toilet paper,” she said.

People working in food assistance testify to increasingly widespread need.

“I’ve been in the profession for twenty years and these are sights I have not seen before,” said Avichai Amosi, director of the Sderot Charity Center, a soup kitchen that distributes hot dishes and food baskets to the needy. The anecdotal evidence confirms the recent findings of Israel’s National Insurance Institute, which said that despite the economic recovery from pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, poverty and economic inequality in Israel have been getting worse.