Happy holiday?
A record number of families who needed help with food baskets
Inflation and interest rates that have jumped in Israel in recent months are causing more and more families to turn to help not only with food baskets but also with payments for electricity, property tax, water, rent and more.
According to Nir Shmol, chairman of the Shanir association: "a 500% increase in the number of families who contacted the association this year, requesting food baskets for the holiday"
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09/28/2022
Wednesday, September 28, 2022, 1:02 p.m
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500% increase in the number of people applying for holiday food baskets (Photo: ShutterStock)
If compared to the world, the economic situation in Israel is quite good, but if compared to ourselves, as we were only a year ago, there is no doubt that it has worsened, especially for those who barely managed to make ends meet even before the inflation and interest rate increases.
This situation is clearly expressed in the data disclosed by the Shanir association.
According to
Nir Shmol, chairman of the Shanir association
: "There is a 500% increase in the number of families who turn to the association with a request to receive food baskets for the holiday.
The association is preparing to distribute 1,000 food baskets for the upcoming Tishrei holidays." The
price increases and the cost of living that occurred last year led many families who were in the middle class to need help from associations and organizations, as well as a jump in the number of requests from those for assistance, whether in food baskets for the holiday or in support related to current payments, This is because in many families the salary of the spouses did not rise at the same time as the price increases in the market.
The Shanir association reports a fivefold increase in requests from families asking for help by providing food baskets during the upcoming holidays.
If until now the association has helped an average of 200 families with full food baskets every holiday, today the demand is about 1,000 families who ask for help from the association and families with children receive more than one food basket.
Nir Shmol: Chairman of the Shanir Association (Photo: Tomer Feder)
Economic emergency room
If in the past a food basket in the association was NIS 200-250 for a basic food basket for a family, which includes cleaning materials and dry products, today the price has increased by about 20% compared to the prices from the past year and such a food basket will now cost between NIS 300-240 per family.
Nir Shmol, chairman of the association: "There is a 500% increase in the number of families who turn to the association with a request to receive food baskets for the holiday.
The association distributed 1,000 food baskets to families during the holiday.
Unfortunately, we recognize and meet every day many families in Israel who suffer from shortages, and the cost of living only increases the disparities in society.
Through a fundraiser event we held two weeks ago, September 15, 2022, many families did not feel deprived on Rosh Hashanah."
Sagi Yona, CFO of the Shanir Association
: "Families report to us that the monthly allowances they receive are not enough for families today for daily living. The increase in electricity prices, The energy, property taxes, water and of course the food prices bring many families that in the past we would not have seen as turning to the association,
"If during the Corona period we established a "financial emergency room" for immediate, urgent and one-time help for families, today we see that this one-time help is not enough and those families who are currently applying for help are asking for assistance month after month, because they are unable to "finish" the month."
According to Shmol: "From the conversations we have with the members of those families, we learn that the subject of the loans that become more expensive every month due to the increase in interest rates and the linkage to a rising index, causes those families to spend more money for the repayment of the loans at the expense of daily living. That is, the increase in the interest rate of the loans taken out and of the payments The mortgage, which has become more expensive on average by hundreds of net shekels per month, leads the families to a financial deficit and the need for help."
Shmol also noted: "As an association that has been operating for 12 years and helps thousands of families a year with help in almost every possible field, we have never encountered such a number of applicants before the Tishrei holidays. This is why we organized with an increased number of volunteers to help as many families as possible get through the holiday as happily as possible ".
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