Haifa soup-kitchen battles on

VIDEO - Rachel Marom from Haifa has no time to waste. Despite massive rocket barrages hitting her city, she continued to feed 150 to 200 people a day in the soup kitchen, 'A meal for all those in need' that she runs in the Neveh Sha'anan neighborhood. The shortage of food in the area is making her job difficult. Determined nevertheless, Marom, aged 76, refuses to stop distributing daily meals, providing savory dishes of meat, rice, noodles and vegetables to guests of the soup kitchen, old-folks homes and needy families. "I open the soup kitchen every day, even on Tisha b'Av, and when there were people here when a siren when off, we simply went to the shelters," she says. Since the onset of the fighting, the soup kitchen, which relies on leftovers from local events, has been struggling to stay abreast. "Nowadays, such events don't take place, so we're no longer receiving food from them," Marom elaborates. "At times like these, of course there is a food shortage, so we buy more and have less donated. In order to buy supplies, I use monetary donations that were given to me in the past, but, at this time, the donations have also decreased." In spite of this, she is not giving up. Even constant calls from family members living in central Israel, to come join them, have not persuaded her to leave. "I can't leave and I can't close this place," she insists. "There are people who need food, families with children for whom we provide meals on a regular basis." What keeps her going? "When I was a little girl in Auschwitz, I experienced what it is to be hungry, and this is a trauma that will never pass," she explains. "In order to prevent the children that we feed from experiencing such a feeling, we send them food home. They don't need to know where it comes from – the important thing is that they won't be hungry." For donations and assistance in keeping the soup kitchen running, please call: 972-4-8322101 until 2 p.m., or 972-4-8233922 after that

Haifa soup-kitchen battles on

(VIDEO) Despite rockets, Rachel Marom, a 76-year-old Auschwitz survivor, has no intention of closing her Haifa soup-kitchen. Declares: As long as people are hungry, I can't leave