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LiLY-Lifeforce in Later Years

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Good People Fund LiLY-Lifeforce in Later Years

Bella*, over 100 years old, is at a point in life when frailties, illnesses, and limited support can lead to isolation and loneliness so great as to threaten her well-being and survival. So, it’s no surprise that she welcomes visitors from LiLY – her connection to community and life – with joy and anticipation.

LiLY creates that connection for elderly persons in the Morningside Heights and West Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan, where seniors living in relative isolation – some at or near the poverty line – can easily disappear. The organization was created in 2009 by Irene Zola as a response to her own experiences with her elderly mother.

Today, LiLY has about 125 volunteers serving about 175 seniors and doing everything from friendly home visits and walks together, to help with paperwork, escorts to doctor visits, connections to professionals and services, and errands. Our matching funds are directed to a social worker’s salary.

*a pseudonym

Zehava and Karyn—Feeding the Neighbors

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Karyn Gellman resides in Baka, one of Jerusalem’s most affluent neighborhoods. When Karyn and her friend Zehava Taub (who has since moved) learned from the nearby school that there were neighbors who struggled to put food on the table, they wanted to help.

The two women approached other families who agreed to volunteer as well as provide food and additional basic items on a monthly basis, and the program was born. Today, many families receive this simple but important boost, which is enhanced at holiday time with supermarket scrip we have purchased on their behalf.

 

Family-to-Family

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Good People Fund Family to Family

It was a news article describing hunger in a rural American town that inspired Pam Koner to found Family-to-Family (FtF) in 2003. While the original program matched “families with more” to “families with less” through a sponsorship program, today FtF is that and so much more. This personal mission has grown into a grassroots project, housed in a storefront in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.

Family-to-Family’s network is now active in about forty communities in eighteen states, providing over 2,400 individuals – including refugees, veterans, seniors and Holocaust survivors – with groceries and other staples, and also responding to needs caused by natural disasters and crises wherever they occur.  Our funds cover administrative costs as well as food for Holocaust survivors.