Kosher meals are hard enough to come by in Milwaukee if you’re “healthy, wealthy and wise.” If you’re not, you’re pretty much out of luck.
But beginning in July, freshly prepared kosher meals will be delivered on request to any area hospital and to community shut-ins.
According to Rabbi Leonard Lewy, director of the Jewish Chaplaincy Program, a program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation in cooperation with Jewish Family Services, “Since I came to Milwaukee two years ago, I’ve been trying to help improve the availability of quality kosher meals in health care settings and to shut-ins. Of course the main concerns are the quality of the food and the strictness of the kashrut supervision.”
He explained that the old Mt. Sinai Hospital and later Sinai Samaritan Medical Center did provide kosher meals to most area hospitals. “However,” Lewy noted, “the size of the kitchen in the new building became an obstacle to continue the kosher food preparation.”
His persistence in working toward providing the service has resulted in a partnership between various agencies: The Helen Bader Foundation will provide the funding; Jewish Family Services will supervise and coordinate the program; the Jewish Home and Care Center will prepare the food; VAAD Kashrus will supervise the kashrut; and the Visiting Nurse Association will deliver the meals as part of its Meals on Wheels program.
Lewy added, “Having the JHCC cook the food is a natural fit because the agency is already involved in food preparation for the elderly population and it deals with state regulatory agencies.”
Judy Strauss, the JFS liaison, said, “We’re so excited to see this become a reality because we’ve worked on it for so long. I have records going back to 1997. We approached WITS (Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study) and Shelley’s Deli, but nothing panned out. This fulfills a real need for our clients.”
In the interim, Strauss said the clients have been receiving frozen meals, which pose a heating problem. “Many of the frail elderly don’t have a microwave, or are afaid to use their ovens for fear they’ll forget to turn them off. It’s been a big problem.”
Participants have the option to receive two fresh meals a day, five days a week. She estimated about 50 meals a day will be provided to the hospitals and another 10-plus to JFS clients.
The pilot program has been conducted at both Sinai Samaritan Medical Center and at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “So far, so good,” Lewy reported.
Strauss added, “The JHCC and the VNA are key components to the program’s success. The JHCC is so generous to extend themselves to prepare the meals while VNA is so willing to deliver them wherever we ask.”
The target start date is July 15. “Eventually, we hope to be able to expand the service to include mothers of newborns who may need help in preparing kosher meals when they leave the hospital,” Lewy noted.
For more information call Strauss, 390-5800.
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