Around 1,000 people benefited from free Pesach food given on Sunday, March 22, at the Forest Hills Jewish Center. Nearly 100 volunteers worked different shifts for the Queens Jewish Community Council’s annual benefit. The distribution was sponsored by Met Council.
Hundreds of people lined up to receive more than 20 items for the holiday. Each large bag included romaine lettuce (maror), chicken, frozen branzino fish, gefilte fish, cans of tuna, apricot jam, boxes of matzah ball mix, applesauce, eggs, and more. Boxes of matzah were the last food items distributed, starting in the early afternoon.
People were asked to register in advance but could register the same day if needed, said Carol Krohn, assistant to the executive director at Queens Jewish Community Council.
The cost of kosher food is a big reason Eileen Vanderborg Cohen came to pick up food for herself and her 27-year-old son. A regular kosher hamburger “went for maybe $20” a couple of years ago on Main Street. “Now, it’s $35.”
New rules, beginning March 1, almost cost Vanderborg Cohen and her son their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/food stamps). “I don’t know what we would’ve done,” but Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi’s office helped them retain their SNAP benefits.
According to a 2023 United Jewish Appeal (UJA) study, one in five Jewish households is poor (12%) or near poor (8%) in New York City – that’s 147,000 households.
“Near-poor have a unique challenge: They live just above the poverty line and are often not eligible for government benefits and services. Poor and near-poor Jewish households tend to be larger than non-poor households.”
“This means that while one in five Jewish households is poor or near poor, nearly a quarter of the total people in Jewish households in New York are poor or near poor,” according to the UJA.
Elected officials lending a hand distributing the Passover food were City Councilwoman Lynn Schulman, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Assemblyman David Weprin, Forest Hills District Leader David Aronov, Rabbi Daniel Pollack (a community liaison for Congresswoman Grace Meng), and Judge David Kirschner.
For Barbara Nevis of Forest Hills, a volunteer preparing packages for the past four or five years, seeing “a huge line of people to get the food packages that we’re making” shows that this program is “definitely having a big positive impact on the community.”
Mayer Waxman, Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community Council, said in an email statement, “Passover is one of the most central celebrations in the Jewish calendar. It celebrates G-d freeing Jews from slavery and oppression. In these troubling times of rampant anti-Semitism, it is so meaningful to be able to help hundreds of food-insecure families more fully celebrate the Seder nights and the Pesach holiday.”
Along with free food for the Passover and Rosh HaShanah holidays, Queens Jewish Community Council has a SNAP specialist, Khanim (Shirin) Shirinova, in the office once a week. She has assisted 122 households between January 2025 and February 2026, said Mayer Waxman.
A Certified Facilitated Enroller at QJCC has helped 40 clients a month – 480 clients a year – obtain health insurance through the New York State of Health marketplace.
QJCC also provides four home-delivered kosher meals every week to about 55 mobility-impaired Queens residents, mostly seniors.
Queens Jewish Community Council is located at 119-45 Union Turnpike, Forest Hills, and can be reached at 718-544-9033.
By David Schneier