Kosher Food Bank Sparks Decadelong Friendship

Every year during the holiday season, Malka, a Holocaust survivor, visits the Jewish Community Services Kosher Food Bank in North Miami Beach. It’s the only kosher food bank in Miami-Dade County.

It’s where Malka, who asked that her last name not be published, gets her kosher turkey, chicken and other goods to last her throughout the year, including beans, vegetables, oatmeal, milk, eggs and soup.

But she doesn’t only go for food. The 94-year-old says her great-grandchildren are all that she has left to live for and, this past year, the food bank bought personalized gifts for all nine of them – just in time for Hanukkah.

Malka showed up Nov. 19 with the names and interests of each of her great-grandchildren on her mind. Listing them one by one, she watched the food bank’s director, Bonnie Schwartzbaum, put together a bundle of gifts into a shopping cart for her to take home. It included a soccer ball for her great-grandson Jonah, a flag football set for Ethan, a geology set for Maxwell, a fairy doll for Michelle and so on.

“Wowee,” Malka said. “That doll she would go crazy for. You don’t know how thankful I am. I’m really very, very thankful.”

Malka’s great-grandchildren live in New York and they don’t all get to come visit her every year. Sometimes, she says, she’s had to go to them.

But 2021 was different: Malka, who has breast cancer, had a pacemaker implanted. The operation left her unable to travel, so all nine of her great-grandchildren came to her.

Because of her diagnosis, her doctors recommend that she avoid certain foods, especially those high in sugar.

“Cancer loves sugar,” Malka said.

Accordingly, food bank staffers help her find exactly what she needs, even if they must go out of their way to fulfill a special request.

Malka is always at the back of Schwartzbaum’s mind when a donor asks how they can contribute. She’ll ask them for gift cards to Kosher Kingdom, where one can find meat without antibiotics, something else Malka’s doctor suggested she avoid.

One time, Malka mentioned she wanted a neck massager, Schwartzbaum said – so the food bank got her one.

“Malka’s one of those people that says, ‘I don’t want to take too much. I don’t want to take anything away from somebody else who needs it,’” said Schwartzbaum. “She’s just one of those pure, simple, beautiful people. Sometimes you just connect with somebody, and I really connect with her.”

The food bank serves approximately 420 families every month, including 275 children and about 70 Holocaust survivors.

Schwartzbaum says working with the survivors is her most fulfilling task.

“We cherish them,” she said. “When I started, there were 119 here. Now we’re down to between 68 and 70 on a given month.”

She’ll often introduce the Holocaust survivors to the food bank’s younger interns, some of whom are as young as age 11.

“We love having them around,” Schwartzbaum said, referring to the survivors. “They’re wonderful people, and they still have stories to tell.”

The food bank fills a niche in Miami-Dade County. Kosher food products are often more expensive than those without the certification, and not everybody can access them, although their religion requires them to.

But a recipient doesn’t have to be Jewish to get help. If someone who doesn’t need kosher food comes to the food bank for assistance, staffers will help them get situated with another local food bank. The food bank’s partnering agency, Jewish Community Services of South Florida (JCS), also has separate departments that serve people of other religions.

“We run on Jewish values,” said Schwartzbaum, “but we help people who aren’t Jewish, too.”

The agency recently established the JCS Refugee Assistance Program (J-RAP), through which services are provided to Afghan refugees looking to resettle in South Florida.

Another program, Shalom Bayit, helps women and children who are victims of domestic abuse. These children were additional recipients of the Hanukkah presents that the food bank invests in every year.

JCS also served as a distribution center for people who were affected when the collapse of Champlain Towers South struck Surfside in June 2021.

“These people are just unbelievable,” said Malka. “I couldn’t live without them. If not for this, I would have to ask my kids for help and I hate asking them. I don’t want to take anything from them.”

Malka’s son makes sure to fill up her refrigerator every time he visits; her daughter was also a big help to Malka and her husband, who had stomach cancer and died soon after they moved to Florida in 1999.

But now her daughter also has cancer. It’s in her lungs. With her child’s medical expenses in mind, Malka doesn’t wish to be an extra worry for her.

Still, Malka chooses to see the good in life.

“I’m blessed,” she said. “In one way, I’ve had a lot of problems. But in other ways, I’m very blessed.”

Malka was only 12 years old when she escaped World War II and traveled eastbound from her home town in Poland to Siberia. One of the volunteers at the food bank shared with Malka that her family was in Siberia during the war, too.

Another worker, Lisa Eichler, who is the food bank’s office manager, remembers how she nearly cried after her first few days as an employee.

“There’s just so much good energy,” Eichler said, “even from the people that donate. It just blows me away.”

Schwartzbaum says she believes a lot of people want to help their community in some way, but that they just don’t know how.

She says everyone knows what it’s like to be hungry, but it’s not just hunger the food bank encounters. She remembers a time when a woman called to explain her living situation and to ask if she’s eligible for assistance. Then, all of a sudden, the woman began to cry.

Her daughter had just asked her for some food, but the woman didn’t have any, and she didn’t have any money to buy some.

“That’s not just hungry,” Schwartzbaum said. “That’s food insufficiency, and that’s what we deal with.”

JCS Kosher Food Bank is a private organization that works by appointment. Before the pandemic, clients were able to come in and gather their items from aisles of food products – just like one would do at a grocery store. It hopes to go back to that in 2022.

But for Malka, who has become Schwartzbaum’s close friend since they met about nine years ago, they made an exception. She came in person for her yearly visit, just like she always does.

As she left with her two grocery carts full of toys and food, Malka thanked Schwartzbaum one last time and told her that she loves her.

“I love you, too,” Schwartzbaum said.