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The JRA warehouse in July 2020, when JRA reintroduced small-group
volunteering Photo by Elvera Gurevich
kosher goods means they are less of a
priority to those larger manufacturers.

And early in the pandemic, rabbis were
unable to travel to food production
sites to provide the mandatory super-
vision needed for kosher goods.

On JRA’s end, this looks like more
expensive goods coming into the ware-
house at inopportune times. Roat oft en
has to balance receiving deliveries for
boxes months in advance with packing
and delivering boxes for the current
month. Before the pandemic, JRA would
host volunteer packing days and food
distribution days on one Sunday
a month. Now, packing days are on
Th ursday, Friday and Sunday, and vol-
unteers distribute the boxes on Sunday,
Monday and Tuesday. It’s the same
amount, if not more boxes than before
the pandemic, with only a fraction of
the volunteer hands available.

Summer volunteer shortages are a
national phenomena, Roth-Saks said,
as is volunteering overall. A December
2021 Gallup survey reported a 56%
decline in volunteering in 2021.

Some of the decline is predictable;
Philadelphians go down the shore on
the weekend and travel over the sum-
mer. But with pandemic restrictions
waning, people have better things to do
than volunteer, Roth-Saks fears.

“People are fi nally out and about.

With COVID, many people had not
been traveling as much,” she said. “It
is going to be especially hard to recruit
volunteers this summer.”
Chris Levin has volunteered with
JRA for more than four years, includ-
ing at the beginning of the pandemic,
when only a handful of volunteers
came into the warehouse to pack boxes.

Before the pandemic, Levin remem-
bered hundreds of volunteers packing
on a Sunday. Roat said that before
March 2020, about 1,000 volunteers
would participate in food packing and
delivery. During the pandemic, a good
turnout was 300-500 people.

“I don’t know why people aren’t com-
ing,” Levin said. “But from my perspec-
tive, there’s a job to be done, and I’m
just going to do whatever I can do to
fulfi ll that need because it’s a need that
should not exist.”
Roth-Saks and Roat hope that
workplaces will return to the JRA
warehouses for corporate volunteer
opportunities. With the return of sum-
mer camps at full capacity, campers
can help buoy volunteer eff orts.

Pam Malter, director of Camp
Canadensis in Monroe, said camp-
ers volunteering at JRA is a symbiotic
relationship; recipients enjoy speaking
with young people, and campers return
to camp with stories about the inter-
esting people they met volunteering.

Camp Canadensis will have campers
volunteer with JRA aft er a two-year
absence. “[Campers] love learning about the
organization. Many of them want to
return in the future because they had
such a good experience,” Malter said.

“And they really love being able to
bring boxes to people who are in need.”
JRA will host volunteer days on June
9, 10 and 12-15; July 7, 8 and 10-12;
and Aug. 11, 12 and 14-16. More infor-
mation is available at jewishrelief.org/
volunteer-1. JE
https://tinyurl.com/2p8rpdp9 Questions can be directed to VirtualSeminars@promedica.org
FREE DEMENTIA VIRTUAL SEMINAR
Conversations with Dr. Tam Cummings
A Monthly Education Series for the Dementia Caregiver
Lewy Bodies and
Parkinson’s Disease
Dementias Lewy Bodies and Parkinson’s Disease dementias
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Tam Cummings, Ph.D., Gerontologist
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for Families and Professionals
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