Featuring Jewish Family Services! - Food Gatherers...Featuring Jewish Family Services! Jewish Family...
Transcript of Featuring Jewish Family Services! - Food Gatherers...Featuring Jewish Family Services! Jewish Family...
JUNE 2015
PARTNER PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
Featuring Jewish Family Services! Jewish Family Services (JFS) was started in the late
1970s by a group of volunteers who observed a need in
Ann Arbor to provide services for the rising number of
Soviet Union refugees. Today, JFS continues to serve
refugees from all over the world, as well as all
individuals and families in need throughout Washtenaw
County. JFS is CARF-accredited and while JFS has
“Jewish” in their agency name, they serve everyone!
JFS offers a vast number of services to meet their clients
needs. Services include counseling, older adult services,
transportation, citizenship classes, ESL classes, clothing,
employment services, refugee resettlement and, of
course, a food pantry! They even have Russian and
Arabic translators on staff to assist their immigrant and
refugee clients. For a full list of the services they offer,
visit their website https://jfsannarbor.org/.
JFS is a pioneer with the number of social services
available to clients for long term assistance and their food pantry follows suit, offering food options that help meet both their
clients’ nutritional needs and their cultural and religious needs. JFS offers products that are gluten-free, vegan, liquid nutrition,
baby food, low sodium, dairy-free, as well as Kosher and Halal foods. They also have non-food products available such as paper
products, personal hygiene items and adult and baby diapers. With the vast array of special foods and non-food items available,
in addition to standard pantry items, JFS found themselves in need of a larger pantry.
To address this need, JFS started renovations to create a new space for a larger pantry in June 2014. Prior to the renovation, the
food pantry was a tiny hallway space. They now have two rooms that have more than quadrupled the size of the pantry, as shown
in the picture above. The extra room increases their capacity to distribute more food items and allows for confidential, one-on-
one interactions with staff/interns so JFS can treat clients with the privacy and respect they deserve.
While the pantry is currently completed and functioning, JFS hopes to add a kitchenette to the pantry for doing nutritional
workshops and food sampling in an effort to expand their nutrition education outreach. With such wonderful accomplishments
and amazing plans in store, Food Gatherers is proud to help them serve the community!
The new pantry at Jewish Family Services!
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE UPDATE
Are your clients still without healthcare coverage?
If any of the life events listed below apply to your client, they may be eligible for a Special Enrollment Period through the
Health Insurance Marketplace. This would enable them to still enroll in a 2015 insurance plan.
PANTRY SHOPPING WITH KATE AT JFS!
Marriage
Divorce resulting in loss of health
coverage
Having a baby, adopting, foster care
Gaining a tax dependent via court order
Survivor of domestic violence, victim of
domestic abuse or spousal abandon-
ment
Loss of health coverage in the past 60
days for anyone in the household. The
special enrollment period would apply to
the family as well, even if the family is
not losing coverage or previously
enrolled in coverage.
Medicaid/Marketplace transfer
problems
Released from incarceration (jail or
prison)
Gaining citizenship or lawful presence in
the U.S.
Marketplace system error/
misrepresentation by an enrollment
Assister
Immigrant families who did not all get
tax credits (until July 31, 2015)
Corner Health Center ~ 734-484-3600
HIV/AIDS Resource Center HARC ~ 734-572-9355 ext. 233
Manchester Community Resource Center ~ 734-428-7722
Packard Health ~ 734-971-1073
Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools ~ 734-998-5785
St. Joseph Mercy Health System (Ann Arbor, Brighton, Chelsea) ~ 855-753-4726
University of Michigan Health System (Appts. 8:00am – 8:00pm) ~ 877-326-9155
Washtenaw Health Plan (Spanish and Arabic speaking assisters) ~ 734-544-3030
*The Medicaid Expansion program is
ALWAYS open for enrollment.
Need help enrolling? The following agencies offer free, in-person,
confidential help with enrollment:
How long have you worked for JFS?
I started at JFS in February 2014 as a clinical social worker,
coordinating an intensive case management program for
refugees called “Preferred Communities.” In July 2014, I was
promoted to Manager of Clinical and Community Services and
have had the fortune of running the JFS food pantry as a part of
that position.
The beauty of my current role is that I still get to interact with our
refugee population, as well as many other community members in
need, through food pantry and other programming at JFS.
What do you find most challenging?
The most challenging thing is helping clients see all that they can
do with fresh produce, meats, canned items, etc.
Recipes are key and I want to invest more time in preparing recipe
cards for clients to take with them when they take the ingredients.
Who inspires you to be a better person?
In my day to day life I look up to my Directors at JFS. Anya
Abramzon (Executive Director), Elina Zilberberg (Associate Director)
and Sheree Askew (Clinical and Community Services Director) are
female powerhouses and have so much knowledge, dedication
and heart that they give to JFS and the Washtenaw community.
They inspire me everyday because they genuinely care about each
and every client served, as well as every staff member.
If you could change one thing about how our society helps
those in need, what would it be and why?
I believe it is difficult for our society to be preventative and think
ahead to the future. Most assistance available is structured to be
utilized only once a crisis is already occurring, not to entirely
prevent the crisis. I often feel that our policies and systems keep
the oppressed in a place of oppression and this only continues a
cycle.
What if we could put measures in place to assist families and
individuals before the crisis? Preventative care is so important and
I’m always grateful when I see other social workers and community
members devoting their time and energy to advocacy and ensuring
success for all of Washtenaw County.
Kate Papachristou hanging out in JFS’s new pantry!
IT’S FARMERS MARKET SEASON!
WEBWINDOW INVENTORY SPOTLIGHT
Product Information:
Packaging: 12/24.5oz (6 of each)
Price/Case: $9.00
Category: Purchased Food
Reference Number: 703834
Sweet Harvest Fruit Jars Variety Pack Tropical Mix/Pineapple
YOU’VE MADE THE FRONT PAGE!
Ypsilanti Farmers Markets are now open and have a new location! Where and When? Downtown (16 South Washington St.) Tuesday from 3-7pm
Depot Town (100 Rice St. in the Plaza) Saturdays from 9am-1pm
The Ypsilanti Famers Market has changed their downtown location to 16 South Washington St and it will now be called the “Ypsilanti
Farmers MarketPlace.” At this new location, there is a large historic warehouse that they are hoping to use for an indoor market during
rainy days and winter months which will allow it to become a permanent, year-round farmers market. Learn more about the
MarketPlace at Patronicity.com/YpsiMarketPlace or contact Amanda Maria Edmonds, Executive Director of Growing Hope, at
734.330.7576.
Ypsilanti Farmers Market encourages agencies or anyone to
purchase Market Dollars (tokens that are $1 coupons) for their
clients to use on anything in the market! Corner Health Center
participates in this so their teens can shop the market for healthy foods using their
Market Dollars!
Ypsilanti Farmers Markets accept the following forms
of payment:
SNAP/EBT/ Bridge Cards (Double Up Food Bucks!)
WIC Project FRESH
Senior Project FRESH/ Market FRESH
Prescription for Health
Hoophouses for Health
Inter-Market Tokens
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Most EBT
tokens and the Double Up Food
Bucks tokens do NOT expire.
You can bring them back to the
market from week-to-week or even
season-to-season to spend at
the market.
The front page of the Food Gatherers website now has quick links for partner programs to find the infor-
mation they need! On the front page of http://foodgatherers.org/ scroll down to find the section, “Partner
Program Information,” which features the following quick links:
Online Ordering
Alerts & Documents
Gatherings- Partner Program Newsletter
Becoming a Partner Program
Have any comments on how user-friendly our
website is? Direct them to Kristie at
You already know it’s important to have at least 5
servings of fruit and vegetables a day. With Sweet
Harvest Fruit Jars, it’s easier than ever to get your daily
servings of fruit. There’s no cutting, peeling or mess!
Just open the jar and taste the goodness of ready-to-eat
fruit! With a convenient, re-sealable lid, you can easily
save your fruit for later too!
FOOD GATHERERS FRIENDLY REMINDERS!
Don’t forget about summer food! Last month, we featured
Food Gatherer’s Summer Food Program in our
newsletter. If you have any questions or if you are interested
in downloading a flyer for the Summer Food Service
Program, visit our Summer Food website at
http://foodgatherers.org/summerfood or contact LeRonica
Roberts at [email protected]!
Haven’t had a chance to purchase a ticket for
Food Gatherer’s famous picnic, Grillin’?! Don’t
worry there is still time before the June 14th
event! Visit www.foodgatherers.org/grillin or
call (734) 761-2796 to purchase your ticket
today!
Interested in volunteering at Grillin’? Email us at
[email protected] to sign up!
1 Carrot Way Ann Arbor, MI, 48105
www.foodgatherers.org 734-761-2796
Made with love by the Community Food Programs Department Markell Miller, Manager of Community Food Programs Department Markell is currently on maternity leave so please contact LeRonica Roberts for any issues regarding your food bank orders, delivery profile, billing, new program inquiries, and any concerns or program challenges. LeRonica Roberts, Community Food Programs Coordinator, [email protected] Please contact LeRonica with questions regarding your food bank orders, the Summer Food Service Program, delivery profile, billing, new program inquiries, site visits, and any concerns or program challenges. Diana Beltran, Meal Program VISTA, [email protected] Please contact Diana with issues regarding site visits, pantry shopping, and civil rights training. Erin Freeman, Food Access VISTA, [email protected]. Please contact Erin with questions regarding Food Gatherers’ website edits, Webwindow photos, recall emails, SNAP outreach, demographic data collection, and ServSafe Training. Kristie Khatibi, Food Access VISTA, [email protected] Please contact Kristie with questions regarding the Healthy School Pantry Program, Gatherings, Hunger Referral Guide, and pantry shopping.