Prices are skyrocketing and Israelis are afraid: "We don't know what we will do during the holidays" | Israel today

In 2004 Ilanit Hafuta began managing a branch of the "Meir Panis" organization in Or Akiva, whose goal is to provide food security to those in need.

In the beginning, she took care of a hundred hungry mouths, most of them recipients of benefits and the sick.

Today she has to work in front of 1,750 people, those whose economic situation is overwhelming and they have no way to fill the refrigerator.

"There are people among them who have gone through upheavals that the brain cannot absorb," she says.

"Do you know how many families I know who sold everything they had and were left with nothing? And life is only getting more expensive, here again they announced a price increase. Many turned around and said, 'We have nothing to eat,' but not only that, but there are also no school supplies and a bed for the child. Or Akiva took in 65 Ukrainian families. A 19-year-old girl came to us, in the ninth month of her pregnancy, with her 15-year-old brother. We provided them with what they needed, from 10 to 15."

Ten thousand dishes

The branch of Ilanit has long been dealing not only with food distribution, it is dealing with poverty.

When we were sitting in her office she was just making out with a local girl, said that she had obtained a "materna" for her baby.

The girl sent an excited voicemail.

"You don't know what you took from me. This is the most important thing, my children's food. I will get back on my feet. Thank you for atonement."

Ilanit Hafuta.

want to change people's lives,

"Do you know how many mothers there are, those who can't handle the most basic things?", she raises her voice.

"I have a lot of similar messages."

She hastened to say one more: "Hey, Mami, maybe you can help me in terms of meat? It's all gone, and I don't have enough money to buy. I barely have any. Sorry for the request."

Ilanit continued to type on her mobile device to illustrate the financial difficulty.

"How did you come to us from heaven, with the fruits and vegetables and especially the soups", a mother is heard in another message.

"The kids loved it, they enjoyed it. Thank you very much."

"What are we talking about - pickles, cans of soup, some vegetables and fruits", Ilanit spoke this time in a whisper.

"Like what I gave them. So you say, what chance does that girl have to make it through these times? Can she really survive on the meager allowance she receives?".

Or Akiva.

Within three years the number of residents will double, photo: Moshe Shay

One of the food suppliers who work with the organization enters the room.

Hufuta now has a big headache for the holidays, especially Rosh Hashanah which comes out consecutively with the weekend.

She has to take out about ten thousand dishes, so that people don't go hungry.

"I think I need a hundred kilos of meat today," she said to a guy who has known her for years.

"Bring moshet fish as well, at least 500 portions until the beginning of next week. I would appreciate it if you offered me something frozen."

When the vendor left, she said, "Are you thinking of what to make that will make those families smile, that will not only be satisfied. They deserve to sit down like you and me and eat, and it's not just holiday dishes. You also give products like honey, rice. Give vouchers that are blocked for buying alcohol and cigarettes. I say - Whoever chooses not to celebrate, fine, but whoever wants to, let him. People cry to me about what they will do on the holiday."

"All empty passwords"

Or Akiva is located on the coastal plain, halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa, east of Caesarea. The city was built mainly from three waves of immigration: in the 1950s, immigrants arrived mainly from Morocco, Romania, and Iraq; in the 1970s, immigration came from the Caucasus; and in the 1990s - from the Commonwealth of Nations.

Today the city has 20,000 residents, but alongside the old neighborhoods there is a construction boom, and according to the outline plan, within three years Or Akiva will double the number of its residents, with the intention being to become a quality and prosperous settlement that will also be used by the surrounding settlements.

People have nothing to put on the table (archive), photo: Dodo Greenspan

Ilanit (51) was born in Or Akiva, and she also had a difficult childhood.

She spent most of her early years in boarding schools and foster families.

Today, part of her drive is to change these people, as much as possible, from the bitter taste of routine.

"They say that at the age of 7 I already said that I would build a well-being body and manage it," she smiles.

"You saw Itzik earlier going out to distribute food at an early hour - it's because I want the family's child to return from kindergarten to have food on the table so that he doesn't go hungry."

Today, the organization has hundreds of volunteers - drivers, cooks, packers.

Even people aged 80 and over, some of them needed support themselves.

There is a lot of work, and it just keeps piling up.

Ilanit says that the hardest day of the week is Tuesday, the day when the fruits and vegetables are distributed, then huge lines of parents who want to bring food home open up in the complex.

"In the last election, I voted for Gideon Sa'ar, after being a bibist all my life, but the politicians made me a school," she laughs bitterly.

"I once dreamed that I would be mayor and after that prime minister, but the dream was dashed. Today, a politician is God forbid for me, because everything is empty slogans. Therefore, if we don't wake up ourselves, the situation will only get worse, and in the end what happened in Tahrir Square will happen here. The people will rise up and there will be chaos. It cannot be that the seven in Israel will not understand the famine."

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