New York’s "Kosher Meals on Wheels" program is in trouble. At least two charities have complained they don’t have enough funding to pay for kosher food, and may limit their services to those considered “Orthodox” in order to cut costs.
This has left the city’s Jewish elderly population – numbering in the thousands – outraged and worried about their source of kosher food. Although the charities say kosher cuisine costs $2 more to prepare than non-kosher meals, city officials (who contract the groups) say they’ve been paying a flat $7-per-meal fee to the charities for three years.
"There are other providers that can make it work," said Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli of the Department for the Aging, according to the New York Post.
But Encore Community Services says they are struggling to feed their clients. And Miriam Wenger, an 85-year-old volunteer and Polish Holocaust survivor who serves prepared lunches every weekday at a centre, is concerned about the fallout.
“I know what it is to struggled for food,” she said to the New York Post. "If you don't serve these people kosher food, they are going to starve. If the meals are non-kosher they won't touch it."