In several locations throughout Brooklyn and Queens lies Masbia, the most healthy kosher food pantry and soup kitchen in New York City. The soup kitchen is non-profit, running solely off of donations, striving to help the hungry.
Whether it’s an Asian woman, an African American man or a Jewish woman in a long skirt; Masbia doesn’t turn anyone away. Everyone needs to eat and with federal cuts to food stamps it’s becoming harder every day. If you are also someone who runs a kosher kitchen you have already started to feel the hardships.
“When food stamps are cut, it’s hard to buy kosher,” one of the women, Debbie Greenbaum of Queens, told the Daily Jewish Forward.
Although Masbia’s goals are to fill hungry bellies, regardless of religion or race, they have faced their own financial issues. Especially when the holidays roll around, they struggle to find additional funding.
Running a kosher kitchen is challenging due to the expensive food and strict conditions. Take kosher meat, it requires further processing and religious supervision. In addition the inability to combine meat and dairy causes Masbia to turn away donations from many organizations.
In the two months after food stamps were cut, the kosher soup kitchen saw a 200% increase compared to the previous year. The kitchen expects to serve up to 1.5 million meals this year while the Queens branch stays open an extra three hours on Thursdays.
“The most dignified and most efficient way [to stem hunger] is to give people food stamps,” Alexander Rapaport remarked. “We’re not the answer. We’re not the gym — the gym is something that keeps you healthy. We’re the emergency room.”
One in five people in New York City relies on food stamps to eat, According to the Food Bank for New York City. One in four Jewish families in New York City is poor and about half of those families depend on food stamps, according to Nicole Doniger, chief programming officer of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.
There is also the issue of being practical for running a soup kitchen. Lettuce is technically a kosher product, but the time consuming process of cleaning and checking – leaf by leaf – isn’t suitable for such a face paced environment.
Many of these products are sold at kosher grocery stores, but it’s too expensive for charities to purchase. Not to mention most of the people don’t come for the kosher meals, but simply to eat that day.
Rapaport and his friend Mordechai Mandelbaum opened the first Masbia in Boro Park nine years ago with $100,000 in savings and loans. Now they have locations in Flatbush, Boro Park and queens with a variety of clientele.
They saw the Hasidic community needed this resource and ran with the idea, but soon enough realized non-Jews needed it too. As great as it is too help out, keeping a kosher kitchen is constant struggle with the cultural changes.
However Rapaport, 36, promotes Masbia vigorously on Twitter and Facebook with his skills from his previous profession as a publicist for the Hasidic community. He and his wife take every outing as an opportunity to interact with grocery store owners and shoppers, in attempts to strike a deal or donation.
Maybe when those shoppers’ children are married they will donate a night meals to Masbia, a tradition in the Hasidic community. Then they can make ends meet.
“If we’re still around, it’s because of tzedakah, because of charity,” Rapaport said. “The awareness is what keeps our doors open and keeps the lights going.”
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