As the summer comes to an end, Rabbi Yossi Kaplan, director of Agudath Israel of Colorado, is pleased to report that, Kiwi Kids, has opened up in Colorado with much success, and in a mere 6 weeks has distributed over 50,000 kosher meals to local families.
Kiwi Kids Colorado is a project of Agudath Israel of Colorado in partnership with Yeshiva Toras Chaim, Hillel Academy of Denver, Bais Yaakov of Denver and Agudath Israel of Illinois that offers weekly 7-day kosher breakfast and lunch boxes to all children, up to age eighteen, free of charge and without any income eligibility requirements.
While Kiwi Kids is a federally-funded program and has been successfully implemented in other states, bringing the program to Colorado came with many unique challenges on a logistical and community level. Agudah of Colorado worked with Rabbi Yitzchok Ehrman, CEO of Agudath Israel of Illinois/Kiwi Kids, and the Colorado Department of Education and collaborated with a local food bank over the course of many months to make this project work.
This is a huge step for Colorado Jewish schools and for the Jewish community as a whole. Kiwi Kids Colorado has a far-reaching impact beyond the beautiful boxes provided for people in need, in that it brings the community together, through volunteerism, inter-organizational collaboration and the way it includes local businesses in the program, such as in using Central Bag & Burlap to provide trucking and loading services. “The community has benefited so much from this program and is so grateful for all the work that the Agudah put into making the kiwi boxes a reality for us,” said Mrs. Meira Zussman, one of the volunteers. “It has been a pleasure working with the rest of the volunteer team, who have spent countless hours working out all the many details and reviewing systems. The tremendous achdus this program brings to our community is a wonderful side benefit.” “The Kiwi Kids food program has been a real boon to many of our community’s families. The greatness of the program is that parents can pick up nutritional yet child-friendly food to feed their family easily and in a respectable manner,” added Mordechai Hoffman, Executive Director of Hillel Academy.
“COVID-19 has impacted people in many different ways. Families that were self-sufficient are now struggling to put food on the table. There are many levels of need that people have and we don’t decide for them who is eligible and what their need is. It’s open to all children 1-18. That’s the way the federal government designed this program,” says Rabbi Ehrman. “The fact of the matter is that when everyone is receiving a box – even the people who you think may not need it – that takes away the stigma, allowing people who are really struggling to preserve their dignity.”
This program also serves as a gateway to many other programs. There were many federal relief programs created or expanded during COVID-19 that participants of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) were eligible for. Unfortunately, none of our schools currently participate in NSLP due to complicated requirements, but with the Covid-19 waivers and more flexible rules the schools were able to take advantage of a federal food program for the first time in many years. Kiwi Kids has also paved the way for allowing Agudah of Colorado to utilize the connections that were made on the state level as they work towards their goal creating school food programs for the upcoming school year.