Chabad of the Conejo Opens Food Pantry

Ventura County Star

Chabad of the Conejo Valley / Agoura Hills

Chabad of the Conejo is opening a food pantry to help struggling individuals and families in the Agoura Hills, Oak Park, Newbury Park, Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks areas.

Because Chabad has been known never to say no, families have been calling about their need for food, said Rabbi Moshe Bryski, executive director of Chabad of the Conejo. The organization had been feeding about 40 families weekly before officially opening the pantry.

“For some months, we’ve been getting calls from families in the Conejo Valley who just don’t have food to put on the table for their families,” Bryski said. “The calls have increased and increased.”

Rabbi Yisroel Levine, director of development for Chabad, is coordinating and leading the food bank program.

“We’ve had a lot of emphasis on adult education, on teens, on special-needs children, and we still do, but we need to step up to the time that we’re in, and right now the time that we’re in is that people need basic food,” Levine said. “We need to offer the larger community something they desperately need right now.”

Organizers are putting together packages of nonperishable grocery items to furnish those in need on a weekly basis.

“They will be food staples like dried goods,” he said. “This way, we can open it up to a wider circle of people who need this, not just those in the inner circle who might know about this because they know about Chabad and are Jewish, but to Jew and non-Jew alike.”

Chabad will need to see a picture identification one time to verify residence. Then there will be a weekly form with the available items. The allotment will depend on how many family members there are to feed.

Forms will be submitted via fax or email on Mondays, and volunteers will buy and bag items Wednesdays for pickup Thursdays. Everything is funded by donations.

“We believe in the kindness of people,” Bryski said. “We’ve been here 30 years, and we’ve never had a membership fee. We survive simply on the goodness of the hearts of the community and that which we feel there is a need for, people respond to. We simply ask people to help. We take contributions, and we provide right back out there for the people.

Levine said: ”Part of me is a little scared at how big the response might be. But hopefully it will draw the necessary support in the synagogue. People are good people. Chabad wouldn’t be here if we didn’t trust the human spirit.”

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