PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The Ferd and Gladys Alpert Jewish Family Service of Palm Beach County is using its food pantry to help the community during this pandemic. Volunteers are working around the clock to package Passover boxes for clients to pick up without having to even leave their cars.
“We would normally have our care managers for these people take them out and deliver them but because of this we are asking the people that can to come to our office over the next couple of weeks and we are handing them out to them,” said CEO Marc Hopin.
The organization was established in 1974 and has always focused on helping people during challenging times.
“We’ve just tried to figure out how can we continue to stay open how can we continue to serve the community we serve several thousand people almost 10 thousand people a year,” said Hopin.
Due to the uncertainties with COVID-19 they’ve quickly changed how they help community members by taking in-person meetings to a virtual space and are asking those who are used to walking into the office to instead call ahead. And the organization says it’s preparing for an increase in the number of people they serve and are gladly excepting new clients.
“Right now I think that people are scrambling, people are still trying to get supplies and figure out what’s going on and I think in the coming weeks though as people are losing their jobs or their hours are being reduced I think we are going to see a spike at that time,” said Hopin.
No matter what happens with the virus in the days and weeks ahead the West Palm Beach organization says it's committed to the community and will do whatever it takes to reach those who need any type of help.
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