Mark you Calendar  – On Thursday, November 3, 2016, FOOD4KIDS New Haven will honor Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro at LoRicco Tower in New Haven. Invitations will be sent shortly and reservations ($50 per person) can be made online at www.jfsnh.org in early October.

FOOD4KIDS is a joint project of Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven and Women’s Philanthropy Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven.  The program is dedicated to addressing child food insecurity in New Haven by providing nutritious, weekend supplemental food packages for school children.  Proceeds from this event will help provide more than 200 children with weekend food during the academic year.

To make reservations or to sponsor a child, please click here.

For more information about this event, please contact Rachel Scolnic Dobin at 203-389-5599, ext. 109 or rsdobin@jfsnh.org

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven invites cancer survivors to come join us for a lite, healthy breakfast and lively discussion with Michele Krilivsky, Registered Dietician, Certified Specialist Oncology Nutrition – Smilow Cancer Hospital.  This hour-long presentation will cover ways to eat to be your healthiest.  Learn about foods that can boost your body’s energy and well-being.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven
1440 Whalley Avenue, New Haven, CT  06515

RSVP Required to Amy Rashba, 203-389-5599, ext. 113 or mailto:arashba@jfsnh.org”>arashba@jfsnh.org

September is National Hunger Action Month. Every week the JFSGNH Food Pantry & Nutritional Health Center staff takes a stand against Hunger. You can make a difference to those who are food insecure in our local community. We are collecting new, non-perishable food items throughout September. We are currently in need of canned soups (especially meat based) and cereal. Items can be dropped off at the JFS office during regular hours, or the JFS Food Pantry on Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9-noon. Together We “Can” Make a Difference!  For more information or to arrange a drop off time, contact Sandra Hagan at shagan@jfsnh.org or 203-389-5599.  

Jewish Family Service of New Haven, the community’s indispensable nonprofit social and human service resource for the past 75 years, is now officially Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven.  The name change reflects the much expanded role that today’s JFS has assumed in responding to the ever growing needs of our community’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and families.

From Chester to Cheshire, Milford to Guilford and all points in between, today’s JFS can be found serving clients in need throughout the entirety of Greater New Haven County and beyond.  We have become, truly, “an agency without walls.”

In conjunction with the name change, JFS of Greater New Haven launched our new website, with a new logo, both which are intended to capture the agency’s character and identity – its values, its mission and vision, and the diversity of essential services that JFS presently offers in response to the community’s greatest needs and struggles.

JFS invites you to “surf” our website and learn about the wide and varied array of social and human services that we offer to community residents in need: Innovative and essential programming such as the JFS Food Pantry and Nutritional Health Center; the Jewish Wellness and Healing Center; the Jewish Community Outreach “SOS” program; JFS’ many specialized Foster Care, Child Permanency, and Adoption programs; the Food4Kids weekend backpack program; Emergency and Safety Net Services; Older Adult and Holocaust Survivor Assistance programs; Volunteer Services; and programs serving Domestic Violence victims; Adults with Developmental Disabilities; and JFS’ traditional myriad Therapeutic Counseling and Family Support programs – and so much more.

The website also offers a monthly calendar section, JFS and community news items, and a host of easy to find information for consumers, donors, community stakeholders and community partners alike.

In addition, friends and supporters can now simply and easily donate to JFS, directly from the website, to the program(s) or cause(s) of their choosing.  Also, a beautiful, newly designed Tribute Card now can be sent to recognize life cycle events “in honor of” or “in memory of” a loved one. One can visit the “Donate Now” page of the website to learn more.

 

 

 

JFSGNH is collecting new school supplies for children and teens whose families use our agency services.  We would like to provide for these 68 families (125+ children and teens between the ages of 4-16). Some of the items we are seeking include: new backpacks (all sizes) ; crayons (thin and the thick ones); one-subject, wide ruled notebooks; two-pocket folders; No. 2 pencils; pens; child safe scissors; colored pencils; child safe pencil sharpeners; water based markers; white glue sticks, erasers; loose-leaf notebook paper; construction paper; highlighters, etc. The JFS main office, 1440 Whalley Avenue, New Haven (2^nd floor) will have a drop off box in the reception area. In addition, donations may be dropped off at the JFS Food Pantry (1^st floor) on Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.  If you are an organization, business or school and you would like to conduct a collection to assist us, please contact shagan@jfsnh.org.  We are hoping to distribute the items before the start of the school year. Thanks in advance for helping our kids to get ready for a great school year ahead!

You can help support Jewish Family Service while enjoying the excitement that comes from watching professional tennis right here at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale (no need to travel to Wimbledon or Flushing, NY). JFS has teamed up with the Connecticut Open which is being held August 19-27th. If you purchase tickets using our promo code, a total of 50% of your ticket purchase will be donated back to JFS! There are a variety of matches and times/dates and schedules are available at CTOPEN.ORG.

 

The JFSGNH Food Pantry and Nutritional Health Center was recently awarded $53,000 in grant funding from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA).  This year’s highly competitive grant solicitation garnered 124 applications totaling nearly $6 million in requests.  JFSGNH was one of just 23 organizations approved to receive part of the $1,125,000 distributed to nonprofit organizations across Connecticut.

“This funding will allow us to vastly expand our Nutritional Health and Wellness Program and provide vital social and human services and much –needed food to hundreds of our community’s most disadvantages, disenfranchised, vulnerable, and at-risk families and children, said Jonathan Garfinkle, JFS’ Executive Director and CEO.   “The ultimate goal is to offer our clients the opportunity to achieve long-term stability and self-sustainability by fostering the economic, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being of the many, many additional individuals and families we will reach through this generous grant.”

According to Feed America, 13.9% of families in Greater New Haven County are currently facing food insecurity.  Funding such as this will help JFSGNH to provide relief to many individuals and families.  Food insecurity refers to a family’s lack of access to adequate food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Food insecurity may result in the need  to make impossible  trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing costs or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods.

With the current state of the economy, changes in philanthropic focus and dwindling funding options, nonprofit agencies and organizations depend on private, foundation, and governmental grant funding to help enhance services and programs.  Funders such as CHEFA help bridge the gap and enable agencies to provide much needed services to the communities in which they serve.

The JFSGNH Annual Meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at the JFSGNH Office, 1440 Whalley Avenue in New Haven. The meeting begins at 12:30 p.m. and will include a statement by Cindy Papish Gerber (outgoing President) and Jonathan Garfinkle (JFSGNH Executive Director/CEO).  Installation of the new slate of officers and new directors of the board is also scheduled.  The public is invited.  Please RSVP to Lisa Merriman, 203-389-5599, ext. 102.