Some 150 families in the Bronx got a head start on Chanukah this week.
Actually, they used their hands and feet.
In preparation for the holiday, which starts with the kindling of the first Chanukah light on Saturday night, sixth-grade students from the SAR Academy in Riverdale, and from the Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck, packed, and helped deliver, more than 400 Chanukah kosher food packages.
Some of the deliveries to isolated seniors were made by foot, throughout the borough; some, by car — the children’s parents did the driving.
“There was so much energy — there is excitement to do this chesed project,” says Niti Minkove, director of volunteers at the Bronx Jewish Community Council, which has coordinated the twice-a-year (Passover and Chanukah) Project Hope activity for 20 years, working with CenterLight, formerly known as Beth Abraham Family of Health Services.
Packing took place at the B’nai B’rith Building in Co-op City.
Funding comes from B’nai B’rith, CenterLight, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and private donations.
“Generations of volunteers have been coming every year to deliver packages,” Minkove says. “We have had some volunteers who have been doing it all their lives and have now passed it on to their children.”
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