July 24, 2008
Citing the economic downturn and growing demands for food and other forms of assistance, national United Jewish Communities is working with local constituents to lobby Congress for increased funding of its Emergency Food and Shelter Program.
Local Jewish agencies supported the move, saying demand for their services are expanding while federal support is falling short.
Members of the program’s national board, of which UJC is a member, are seeking a 30 percent increase in funding for the program for the 2009 fiscal year.
That would be the largest funding increase in the EFSP’s 25-year history, according to Robert Goldberg, senior director of legislative affairs at UJC.
Goldberg said the EFSP board has been able to secure its request for $200 million for the program in the pending House version of the Homeland Security Appropriations bill for the 2009 fiscal year, while the pending Senate version funds it at only $153 million — its current level.
The EFSP is a nationwide network of more than 12,000 nonprofit and public organizations. It is overseen by a national board that includes UJC, United Way, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities USA, and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and is administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It’s definitely a concern for our agency and the clients we work with,” said Reuben Rotman, executive director of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest NJ, which receives EFSP funds. “The economy is just in a really bad place all over.”
Rotman said that the agency receives government funding to purchase discount vouchers for JFS clients to use at area supermarkets and to provide money for rental assistance.
“It supplements whatever our agency can do,” said Rotman.
His agency also refers clients to the kosher food pantry run by Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange.
Noting that the funds are “on the chopping block for being cut” while the demand for assistance continues to rise, Rotman added, “It really is like ‘the perfect storm.’”
“We have been very mindful that members of our community are not immune to the financial strain that is affecting everyone these days,” Lori Price Abrams, director of the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, wrote in an e-mail to NJJN. “In addition, there have been pockets of ‘hidden poverty’ in our community (folks who are one paycheck or one medical event away from homelessness or hunger).
“These examples will multiply in this economic climate,” added Price Abrams. “The EFSP is part of an array of approaches to prevent people slipping further, and CRC will be reaching out to our delegation to advocate for the increase.”
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