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Packed With Love: Mitzvah Food
Program Distributes Passover Meals
T “As Passover approaches, kosher beef prices
his Passover will be different for
have increased as much as $2 a pound,”
Helene, age 86. Where her husband of
said Brian Gralnick, director of the Jewish
69 years, Samuel, would traditionally
Federation’s Local Grants and Partnerships,
drive them to their granddaughter’s for the hol-
including the Mitzvah Food Program’s four
iday, this year, she sits at home worried about
pantries. “Over the past month in particular,
her husband who is recovering in rehab after a
we are seeing a real increase in new clients
recent fall.

and old clients returning. I’m thankful to our
But she’s hopeful that he’ll return home in
donors and partner organizations for helping
time, and she is comforted knowing that a
us provide kosher food for the holidays to those
seder will be ready for them with food from the
who may have otherwise gone without.”
Mitzvah Food Program.

In the Greater Philadelphia region, 16%
For seven years, Helene has been a client of
of Jewish households keep kosher at home,
the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s
and another 12% are kosher when observing
Mitzvah Food Program, which distributed
Passover. more than 1 million pounds of food to 6,530
Despite food banks housing an overabun-
clients throughout the Greater Philadelphia
dance of pork products and other non-ko-
region during the last fiscal year. She first
sher foods, greatly limiting food options to
learned of the program while enjoying a meal
be sourced to the Mitzvah Food Program, the
with a friend at a KleinLife Senior Lunch
pantries are able to maintain a supply of kosher
Program. products by way of donations from commu-
“It was a great way to meet people, and
nity members, organizations, synagogues and
other Holocaust survivors,” said Helene, who
agencies. Partners like Jeff and Sandy Brown
escaped Germany to the Philadelphia area
of ShopRite and the Novick Brothers have been
in 1949. Helene and her husband are two of
essential partners in providing food specific to
557 local survivors to receive food assistance
major holidays.

through a Jewish Federation-funded program
In preparation for Passover, more than 100
like KleinLife, Mitzvah Food Program, Jewish
volunteers packed and distributed holiday
Relief Agency and KAVOD SHEF.

meals during the last three weeks. Hundreds
As the years go by, Helene has found it phys-
of clients received packages of kosher beef,
ically harder to shop for groceries and cook
matzah, grape juice, gefilte fish, honey, matzah
at home. Alleviating this hardship, Helene
ball soup mix, apples and walnuts.

has used the Mitzvah Food Program’s online
Clients had a pickup or home delivery option
grocery delivery services option. Her daugh-
to receive their holiday packages. Delivery is
ter places the order online each month, and a
especially important given the demographics
volunteer delivers the packages from Mitzvah
of the clients and the substantial weight of the
Volunteers deliver Passover packages to Mitzvah Food Program
Food Program to Helene’s house.

Passover meal kits. With 42% of clients in the
clients. Courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
“It’s very difficult for me to go shopping,
age range of 60 and up, many recipients, like
so having the food delivered makes a big dif-
Helene, don’t have access to transportation
ference,” shared Helene, who also receives food assistance from KleinLife and or can’t easily lift and carry grocery packages. Home delivery is also critical for
other programs. “The people at the pantry are wonderful, I have plenty of kosher clients like Fern, who helps care for her adult child living with a chronic health
options, and the food is really good. I’m so glad that they’re helping us.”
problem. Helene and her husband aren’t the only families relying on food pantries for
“This food package is so much more than just a meal,” said Fern, a longtime
healthy food options at home. Over the course of the last six months, the Mitzvah client of the Mitzvah Food Program. “Especially on the holidays, we should all
Food Program has experienced a slow but steady increase in the number of clients have something special to eat.”
across their four pantries.

Last year, Fern’s Passover package included enough kosher for Passover meat
With food prices rising and pandemic benefits ending, the program has pro- and food to host her own small seder. Many of her invited guests included those
vided a much-needed source of stability for many individuals and families strug- who would otherwise be alone due to the pandemic.

gling to make ends meet. While the cost of groceries has risen, this hike has been
“If you have a little, you have to share it and help others,” commented Fern.

particularly noticeable for meat and other proteins.

“Because of the Mitzvah Food Program, we all had a truly blessed Pesach.”
12 APRIL 14, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



YOU SHOULD KNOW ...

Andrew Perelman and Jonah Zitelli
band in West Philadelphia, finishing
their first album and planning a return
to Kenyon for a show later this month.

The band’s first full album,
“Companion,” is out April 15 on
Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music.

What does post-country mean?
Jonah Zitelli: It’s like a tongue-in-
cheek thing I made up when we were
in college. I guess once we started
playing more seriously in college,
that’s where I was coming at it from,
kind of like a hokey, Americana angle.

Andrew Perelman: The post-coun-
try thing is honestly a tongue-in-
cheek joke. But also we like to really
play up the “Twang”.

How has your music evolved
since forming the band in 2017?
AP: It used to be a lot less mellow.

We’ve learned how to kind of reign in
our dynamics instead of just having
one gear, which is, like, as fast as
possible. I always try to write songs that’ll
stay relatable to yourself as time
goes on. So I still enjoy playing
everything, but most of the songs
we’re playing now are from the
record that’s gonna come out.

Where did you draw inspiration
from for the new record?
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
Courtesy of Andrew Perelman
A ndrew Perelman, Jonah Zitelli and Rutherford B. Hayes
have one obvious thing in common — and no, Hayes
was not Jewish, and Perelman and Zitelli were not sitting
Republican presidents.

But all were Kenyon College graduates who left the abundant corn
fields in search of something bigger.

Perelman and Zitelli, 24, were wrapping up their undergrad work
in 2020, thinking their band Mark Twang, founded their sophomore
year with some Kenyon friends, would release an album and go on
tour around the country. By March that year, the duo realized the
band’s hiatus would last longer than their senior year spring break.

But just as they did as freshman in college — living on the same
hall with a mutual interest in early 2000s emo pop-punk music —
Perelman, a New York native, and Zitelli, a Dresher native and Or
Hadash bar mitzvah boy, found each other again, rebuilding the
JZ: A lot of songs that I wrote for
the record, even those songs, are 2
years old now. And thinking back on
inspiration for them, I wrote a couple
of them after the pandemic started.

I was kind of stuck; I was still in col-
lege; I ended up getting stuck at my
aunt’s house in the suburbs.

My parents were not in town, so
I couldn’t go back to their house.

It was just kind of quiet. And I had
nothing much else to do. And I had
never really sang before on track,
so I was like, well, I’m gonna sit here
and try to write words.

AP: A lot of the lyrics are very
retrospective on my life. A lot of it
was written during Kenyon; a lot of
it was written during that period of
time after we left Kenyon. I was living
at home with my parents, and I was
definitely reflecting on my life up
until that point so far.

As kids, did you imagine
yourselves in a band?
JZ: Absolutely, we fantasized about
that. I grew up playing the trumpet
and then switched to guitar because
I didn’t think trumpet was cool
enough — big mistake.

I grew up listening to a lot of
pop-punk music and I just imag-
ined myself playing super-cathar-
tic music on stage for a bunch
of people. I was very much imag-
ining something high-energy and,
l guess, emotional. That’s what I
would have wanted in my preteen,
early teenage years.

AP: My siblings and I used to per-
form for our parents when we were
little toddlers. We just lip synced to
songs and set up light shows and
just put on performances. I always
loved performance. I think it’s so
much fun, and I’ve always been, I
guess, looking for that. I’ve been
playing in bands since I was 13
with my friends, but it used to be
nerdy. What’s the most embarrassing
thing to happen during a set?
JZ: We played at a bar in Pittsburgh,
which was a smokers-only bar. But
they didn’t like us very much. There
was no one really there to see us. It
was just like a bar full of people who
just happened to be there. We just
didn’t really fit the bill. And then it
was just kind of an awkward situa-
tion for everyone involved.

AP: I had a great time. I remember
really enjoying that. I had a good
time, but the people there were not
happy that we were playing.

JZ: Do you have a different most
embarrassing Mark Twang moment?
AP: Most embarrassing? No, my
pants have never fallen down.

I don’t know how embarrassed I
get because it’s already hyper-em-
barrassing, to be honest. Like you’re
there, you’re just creating this opti-
mistic, energetic person that’s
gonna dance around for 30 minutes
and make everyone want to watch
what’s going on. You’re already
putting yourself out there. JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
13