Food drive set to get everyone ready for Passover

The Nassau County Police Department’s Shomrim Society and Hatzilu Rescue Organization are gearing up for their annual Passover food drive.

Every year the Shomrim Society and Hatzilu team up to hold the drive and distribute food packages to needy families across Nassau County. Shomrim comprises Jewish law enforcement officers in Nassau County and is a branch of the National Conference of Shomrim.

Gary Koffsky, who has been Nassau Shomrim president and a member for 30 years, described the partnership between the two groups in helping families across the county.

“For the past 30 years, over three decades, we’ve been providing food for Jewish families throughout the county that are in need,” Koffsky said. “Hatzilu has helped us for quite a few years, getting us people that need help. Some people have medical issues, some people are strained financially. We get together as a group, we assemble food packages, and then we coordinate deliveries throughout Nassau County.”

Koffsky estimates that this year, between 75 and 100 families will be helped by the Passover food drive.

The drive will be held on Sunday, April 10, when the food will be collected by Shomrim from a kosher food warehouse.

Hatzilu is a volunteer organization that helps those who have fallen on hard times, assisting Jewish families and then expanding the reach to all families across the county. With no large corporate donors, the organization depends on individual donations and a small group of volunteers.

“To get 50 people to take their own cars and pay for their own gas to deliver food to families,” Dona Schwab, who is on the Hatzilu board of directors and runs the food warehouse, said in describing the volunteer efforts of the organization. “There are really good people out there.”

Both Shomrim and Hatzilu provide support to those in need all year long, but they come together for the holiday. Shomrim members and their families join Hatzilu members and deliver the packages to identified families, and most of those who receive them are clients of Hatzilu.

Oceanside Chamber member Mark Greenberg joined the Shomrim Society in 2009 and soon found out about Hatzilu Rescue and has been helping deliver food to families in need on Passover and year-round ever since.

“I started as an auxiliary policeman and when I went to the Nassau County Auxiliary Police Academy and there was a mention of a Jewish police organization called the Nassau County Shomrim, I wanted to join it, and they said that they were going to have a Passover food drive,” said Greenberg. “I brought the family and we all went to help out (the) Shomrim Passover food drive, with a group called Hatzilu, which I didn’t know at the time, but I saw the good work that they were doing and I said, ‘I want to be a part of this.’”

Greenberg now helps deliver the food to needy families in Oceanside for Passover.

Although it can be time-consuming, Greenberg with the help of his family, can make time to lend a helping hand. “This is a charity where nobody gets a salary,” he said.

“It’s all volunteer-based and we’re helping feed people that need food. No one’s making money, everyone’s donating their time. It’s almost like doing a wellness check on somebody.

“I’m donating my time, picking the food off the shelf, putting it in the bag, putting it in a shopping cart. I’m bringing it to your door,” Greenberg added. “I’m bringing it to their kitchen table and you get to look to see if everything’s OK. I think it’s just a win-win. What if I’m in this position one day? I want someone to help me.”

Greenberg said he is grateful to be a volunteer, delivering food to families and thankful the two organizations can come together annually to help the community. “I’m just a driver, I’m just one spoke (in) a big wheel,” said Greenberg. “We need everybody together to help out to make this work.”

Koffsky added, “You’d be surprised how many families have issues, you know, just trying to make ends meet. By doing this for them,

“it’s giving something that maybe they wouldn’t have the opportunity to do: have a nice Passover dinner.”