Henry* is an 89-year-old-widower who lost his wife to Alzheimer’s over 5 years ago. Losing his entire family during the Holocaust, Henry survived the war in a Siberian concentration camp. After arriving in the States in 1946 he worked for years in a family business. Today, he finds himself with no pension and very little savings. Henry suffered a stroke this winter and today his meager income goes to the home health care he needs to survive at home. At some point Medicaid benefits will provide that care, but in the meantime putting food on the table is not an easy task.

Ruthie* is now 82 years old but her life changed tragically when her husband died at a very young age, leaving her to raise their two children on her own. She sadly recalls having so little money that there were days that she could not provide food for her small family. The joy that Ruthie felt as each of her children married and began families of their own was short-lived. Her son and his wife were involved in a serious accident which killed the wife and left her son with severe head trauma. Ruthie, with very few resources, was then called upon to raise her 20 month old grandchild on her own. Only after insistent urging has she agreed to accept some modest help with her present food expenses.

Lilly* is a blind 93 year-old woman with many serious medical problems including an inherited degenerative spinal disorder which has been passed on to both of her daughters. She lives on a small social security pension and very little more. For Lilly, having sufficient healthy food on her table is often very difficult.

Each of the elders described above live in New York and are helped by the good people at Project Ezra (http://projectezra.org), a small non-profit dedicated to the welfare of over 400 frail elderly people, most homebound and residing on the Lower East Side. As we have in the past, the Good People Fund has just sent funds to cover the cost of a small monthly stipend for several of the elders. The funds are used to purchase supermarket scrip which is given to many of the elders to help them with their simple food needs.

It is a small thing we can do to help these elders as they age…shouldn’t they be free from worry about how they will feed themselves?

*All names have been changed.

There is never a shortage of truly compelling and distressing stories that come to us that involve children – innocent children who have been thrust into untenable positions because of their family circumstances…circumstances over which they, just youngsters, have no control.

Such was the case of a request that came to us today in an email from Libby Reichman, founder of Big Brothers, Big Sisters in Israel. Modeled after the international program of the same name, BBBS pairs adults with children and teens from troubled single-parent homes in a close mentoring relationship. We have shared many of Libby’s stories in this diary before and in each of them we have been able to make a real difference by contributing some of our donors’ tzedakah funds to solve a seemingly insurmountable problem.

Today’s story from Libby was no different…

Dina and Inbal, now 9 and 13, previously spent some time in a domestic violence safe house with their mother and older sister. It was obvious that this family had many problems which included an abusive father and a mother incapable of nurturing her children or even providing for their basic needs. With the help of a Big Sister, Moran derives some benefit from a steady relationship, but the girls’ situation is quickly deteriorating. Every professional involved in the case agrees that if the girls are to survive they must be removed from their home and placed in a group home. Before any placement can be done, though, each of them must undergo psychological testing…an expensive undertaking with a long, long waiting time before it can be implemented.

With the girls’ mother now somewhat cooperative about allowing the testing, the biggest obstacle facing Libby was the cost. Could we help?

With the help of our donors the Good People Fund was able to tell Libby to go ahead with the tests. Hopefully, these two young girls will soon be living in a warm and stable environment, free from the stress and pain of their previous life.

About one year ago (May 20, 2008 diary) we brought you the story of Maureen Kushner, the founder and inspiration behind the project called Peace Through Humor (http://peacethroughhumor.com). Peace Through Humor has been Maureen’s focus since 1994. She has traveled throughout Israel visiting kids in Israeli, Arab, Bedouin and Druze schools where she worked with them to develop original paintings based upon the theme of war and peace. The artwork has become part of a traveling exhibit which was adopted by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it has been our privilege to help Maureen spread her message of peace in whatever ways we can.

Maureen wrote this morning with the following update:

This year the show was exhibited in Marseilles, France for 6 months, Bern, Switzerland for 3 months and next week it will travel to Berlin for 3 months, then back again to Cyprus, to Budapest and back again to Germany…

In the USA the show is leaving Ann Arbor, Michigan today for a return engagement in a new venue in Denver for 3 months and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina…believe it or not….

Miraculously to date PTH has been shown in 178 cities in the USA and Canada and 9 countries in Europe…Cyprus, Turkey, Austria, France, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Switzerland and Germany…and will go to Hungary in November…and return to Cyprus and Germany…thus far….only with the power and message of the education of the heart…has it managed to be seen by more than 21 million people…

If only the number of people who have seen the exhibit took its message to heart…imagine what the world might be like today!

Imagine… you are the parents of four young children, ages four through ten. One of you works as a chambermaid in a local motel dependent upon tourists, and the other works for a landscaper who has just lost several of his clients due to the economic squeeze. The landscaping company has just told you that your hours are now cut to three days a week and this week you will not work at all. You have an overdue utility bill of $203.58 and the lights are going to be turned off soon. What do you do?

Imagine…you are the single mother of four children, only one of whom is old enough to work. You have just lost your job and now must pay your monthly rent, utilities and other living expenses but there is just not enough to go around. $84.87 will keep the lights on. What do you do?

Imagine…you are a single Mom with two young children. You did have a job and made ends meet but you were laid off and now find that the electric company has sent its final notice before turning off the power. You have a job interview for next Monday and you are sure that you can "ace" it. You just have to get the $252.23 to keep the power on. What do you do?

We heard these stories from our friends at the Caridad Center (http://caridadcenter.org) in Boynton Beach, Florida. The Center was started in 1991 by Caridad Asencio, herself an immigrant from Cuba who settled in South Florida, and her dear friend Connie Berry, a local educator. Connie and Caridad began the Center to address the many difficulties facing the migrant workers who pick Florida’s fresh fruit and vegetables. The program has grown successfully since its inception and today enlists the help of hundreds of volunteers who provide excellent medical care, tutoring and general social services.

When Connie and the organization’s present director, Barbara Vilaseca, were in touch a few days ago they told us how difficult things have become since the recent economic slowdown. Despite a good solid foundation of supporters, the organization can no longer keep up with the emergency situations that seem to arise many times each day. Could the Good People Fund help?

The above stories (and others they shared) were about real people and they represent just a fraction of the many people who have suddenly found themselves in dire straights. Before this latest catastrophe, they made ends meet. It may have been difficult and they always lived with very little but there was always food on the table and a roof over their head. For a bit more than $600 four families were saved, perhaps permanently, maybe not. We were glad to be able to step in and help.

We recently came upon an old poster from the Second World War. Amid the colorful drawings of peas and cabbage, peppers, tomatoes and onions were the words, "Your Victory Garden Counts More Than Ever!" Victory Gardens were popular during the First and Second World War when food was not as plentiful and people were encouraged to grow their own "for the war effort".

Today, in addition to the wars we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are also fighting an economic war where more and more of our citizens are finding it difficult to put sufficient healthy food on the family table. It was for this reason that we decided to team up once again with Pam Koner and Family to Family (http://family-to-family.org), as the summer growing season is upon us.

Our Victory Garden continues to grow in Myra, Kentucky…another small, rural community in Eastern Kentucky where residents have been impacted by the closing of nearby mines and the local food pantry reports an increase of nearly 1500 additional people seeking help. This year’s donation to Family to Family helps to provide each family with 10 chickens, 1 set of garden tools, seeds, fertilizer, chicken feed and a few other miscellaneous items. Each of the families that have been selected for this project has agreed to teach five new families in the next season, thus ensuring that more families will have a supply of healthy home-grown food available during the growing season and beyond.

Who would have thought that Victory Gardens would gain new importance close to 70 years after their first introduction to American life?

McRoberts, Kentucky (population 972 at the last census) is a mining community deep in the hills of the Cumberland mountain range in Eastern Kentucky. Had Pam Koner, founder of Family to Family (http://family-to-family.org)) not called to talk about hungry school kids in McRoberts, we would never have known it even existed. Family to Family focuses on ways we can eliminate hunger in this country, particularly hunger in small, rural communities with minimal resources.

McRoberts – once we had the name, a Google search gave us some very interesting information, some of it very sad and disturbing. McRoberts was established nearly 100 years ago by the Consolidation Coal Company, one of the large companies involved in mining coal in the area. The town was to serve but one purpose…to house the miners who worked for the company. As long as the mines produced, the residents of McRoberts were comfortable and could earn a living. With the recent economic downturn, more mines are closing and more of the townspeople are living on minimal incomes.

Pam’s call was to share the conversation she had with the McRobert’s school principal. She learned that about 60 kids in the school were going home on Fridays with no assurance of having food available for the weekend. Many kids were going hungry over the weekend. Pam wanted to step in and called me to ask if the Good People Fund could help her with funds to purchase sufficient amounts of "kid-friendly" food that would be placed in a backpack and sent home with these kids every Friday. Pam estimated that it would cost about $5.00 per child. Within a short time Pam found a donor to purchase the backpacks and quickly contacted the local K-Mart which is providing the items at a discounted price. In the end, our $1000 donation will underwrite two full months of weekend food for these kids.

One cannot help but wonder how many other kids in rural communities we have never heard of are also going hungry when school is not in session?