of client services for the Jewish Relief Agency, which
helps hungry families within 150% of the poverty
line, infl ation is what people cite when they reach
out now.

In many cases, residents are on SNAP, or food
stamps, and they can get through the fi rst three
weeks of the month without a problem. But they need
help during the last week before they get their next
SNAP distribution.

JRA has averaged about 40 new clients per month
over the summer, according to Salz. In the past six
months, it has taken on 155 new people to bring its total
to more than 6,000. Sometimes, she notices on JRA’s
website that residents are requesting help with electric
or rent bills, too, even though JRA focuses on hunger.

“Food is expensive. Gas is expensive. Everything
has gone up,” Salz said.

Laura Flowers, the program manager for Jewish
Family and Children’s Service, an organization that
helps families in the fi ve-county area, said increased
expenses fall into four main categories for JFCS fam-
ilies: food, gas, rent and utilities.

Out of those basic needs, food is the one that peo-
ple most oft en skimp on, she explained. JFCS clients
will make sure they have gas in their car, a roof over
their heads and electricity in their homes before
focusing on food.

Th ey approach it that way because food, while
more essential than any of those, can also be more
fl exible. You can use whatever money you have left to
buy just enough. And that is what a lot of people are
doing, Flowers said.

JFCS works with low-income families, middle-in-
come families living paycheck to paycheck and
seniors with fi xed incomes, among others. Across
the board, Flowers is seeing people make tough deci-
sions. Sometimes, they skip a bill for a month and
KleinLife serves about 35,000
people per year, many of them
elderly Jews.

18 AUGUST 18, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
KleinLife often hosts meals for senior residents of Northeast
Philadelphia. pay for cash expenses. Th en the next month, they will
target a diff erent bill.

Credit card debt is mounting, according to Flowers.

“Th e person will say, ‘I’ll just use my credit card
and pay the minimum. Th at’s all I can aff ord,’” she
said. “A lot of our clients don’t have savings, and
that’s why they are coming to us in the fi rst place.”
Beyond basic needs, some Jews are being forced to make
diffi cult decisions regarding longtime staples of Jewish life
like summer camp and synagogue membership.

Justin Guida, the director of the Golden Slipper
Camp in the Poconos, said that 27 families canceled on
the 2022 summer due to issues stemming from infl ation
and COVID job losses. To help the camp’s hundreds of
families that still could send their kids, Golden Slipper
allowed payment plans to start as early as November. In
a normal year, those payments would be completed by
May 1. Th is year, some extended into June.

“Every year, there’s a few,” Guida said. “Th is was
way more than typical.”
Darchei Noam, an Ambler synagogue that opened
in the summer of 2021, did so without mandatory
dues because its founding group of women believe
that Jews should be able to practice their religion
without having to pay. But like any organization,
Darchei Noam needs money to operate, so its leaders
inform their members about what a sustaining rate
would be per adult.

It’s $731 per year, according to synagogue President
Brandi Lerner. And while all of Darchei Noam’s 212
congregant families pay something to help keep the
lights on, most do not pay $731.

“Paying those dues is a huge fi nancial burden to
many families,” Lerner said. “We had many families
join us because they can aff ord our dues model.”
“We have to change with the times,” she added.

What makes today’s infl ation problem particularly
diffi cult for local families is that it’s both day-to-day
and long-term. Th e Federal Reserve is slowly increas-
ing interest rates in an attempt to slowly bring down
infl ation. And from June to July, the rate did fall from
9.1% year over year to 8.5%.

But even as infl ation comes down, it remains a
daily problem, and even if it keeps going down, local
Jews are worried that the economy may fall into a
recession. Krug, Salz and Flowers all spoke of a gen-
eral feeling of anxiety among clients.

Krug said, “People get mentally impacted by this
whole thing.” Flowers mentioned that “people are
having trouble sleeping.” And Salz concluded that
they simply can’t aff ord to plan for the future.

“People are dealing with their immediate needs.

[Th ey say] I need to buy groceries now; I need to
pay rent now,” she said. “I don’t really think they are
projecting.” JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com