Ronald Cole, ex-Londoner now living in Kfar Saba, has for the past 16 years run a voluntary organization for the distribution of food for the needy people of Kfar Saba. Kfar Saba, a few miles north of Tel Aviv, is a mainly middle-class town of around 80,000 people. There are, I think, very few people there who go to bed hungry but there are quite a number who are hard-up, there are old people who cannot look out for themselves and are house-bound, there are younger people with larger families and who have gotten into debt, there are those who have lost their jobs and need assistance to get back on their feet. They are the people whom the welfare department of the local authority tries to help, but they have limited means. So the authority passes addresses on to the organization run by Ronald.
The organization, its name is Hazan et HaKol, is an example of communal self-help. There are many such organizations which operate throughout Israel. There is of course no “Jewish community” in Israel. in Israel the local authorities and government institutions carry out many of the functions performed by the “community” in the Diaspora, but there is still a need and important place for voluntary help. It does not mean that there is actual starvation, but there are certainly pockets of need which the welfare state does not reach and where voluntary assistance can make a big difference.
All told Hazan et HaKol distributes each week approximately 360 parcels of foodstuffs and cooked meals to a further 30 families. The parcels include fruit and vegetables, packets of soup, rice or pasta, baking flour or cooking oil and sugar, and, finances permitting, chicken.
Donations from individuals, synagogues and organizations throughout the town are used to purchase some of the items. Others are donated or sold at especially subsidized prices by local food companies, kibbutzim and moshavim in the area. There are special bins located in Kfar Saba supermarkets into which shoppers place donations of foods items. Over the years contacts have been made with organizations which may end up with surplus products and know to donate it to Hazan et HaKol rather than dispose of it.
The organization is manned by a small army of volunteers, over 100 people who donate their free time each week. Some come for 3 hours per week, others 10 hours or more. Some of the volunteers are school children, others are groups of workers from companies who operate in the town, there are housewives and pensioners, business people and soldiers on leave- people from all walks of life and almost every different background. On Sundays there are those who come in for 2-3 hours to prepare the boxes in which the food is to be placed and sort them in accordance with the size of the family to be helped. Some come to sort out and store the donated or purchased items. Others come to the Hazan et HaKol premises each Tuesday and Wednesday to fill up the boxes with the food which is available for distribution. Then the boxes have to be sorted again in accordance with delivery routes. And on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings volunteer drivers come to pick up the parcels allocated to each of them.
Each week, at around noon on Friday, Ronald and his key helper, Shlomi, breathe a sigh of relief that once again they have been able to keep their promise to help make life a little easier for 390-400 Kfar Saba families. And they start to worry how they are going to be able to do the same thing next week. But for Ronald the best thing is when a recipient telephones him to thank him for the parcels and then goes on to say that there is no need to send any more, because he is now back on his feet and can once again look after himself and his family.
If anyone wishes to help please call Ronald at 972 (50) 7274115 or email rcole@netvision.net.il