Category: Feed Tel Aviv

Last week in Israel the government released new updates on stricter regulations for gatherings and businesses every day because of the massive spread of the corona virus. At the beginning of the week, only ten people could gather in one place. By mid week, the Ministry of Health had ordered all non-essential personnel into home quarantine.

Because of the restrictions, we could not use the soup kitchen space in south Tel Aviv for our regular Thursday Feed Tel Aviv meals for the needy. So, we decided to improvise and, with the help of my children, we made 80 sandwiches, and I headed to the streets with a couple volunteers to set up tables in different areas where drug addicts, refugees, and those caught in the sex industry live. The police were in the area, and I made sure that it was okay with them (the police are enforcing the quarantine regulations) that I set up tables with sandwiches so that people could come and take them on their own while we maintained the required two meter distance.

I was shocked at the condition of the people on the streets: it’s the worst I have ever seen in all the years I’ve been serving on the streets. Because of the risks of having people together in close quarters, almost all the homeless shelters have decided to close their doors rather than risk having a corona outbreak on their hands. So, in a week that has been unseasonably cold and rainy here in Israel, countless homeless wound up on the streets. It was a heartbreaking sight to see people trying to cover up with wet blankets. Many came to the tables we set up and all the sandwiches were quickly gone. It was hard to keep our two meter distance because people wanted prayer, they wanted the love and warmth they’re used to getting from us. But we just can’t get physically close right now in order to keep to the guidelines (people who are caught breaking them will be fined $1,000 at a minimum, jail time in extreme cases).

In times of national crisis, the poorest of the poor are the ones hardest hit because all the resources and energies are being focused elsewhere and the people who regularly serve the poor find themselves in the position of worrying about their health and well-being. I will be going out a couple times each week, bringing 100 sandwiches each time. Since all my five children are home with us, I will enlist their help in making the sandwiches again!

This is a critical time for all of us, and we tend to worry about our own well-being and the well-being of our loved ones. However, I encourage everyone to take time to pray for and consider helping the poor and vulnerable in your area. While everyone’s worrying about whether they have enough toilet paper stocked, I guarantee you that there are homeless people who have lost their safety net and will be sleeping on the streets tonight. I would also like to ask you to consider supporting us with our Feed Tel Aviv outreach.  Thank you and God bless you and keep you in this challenging time!

By Moti Cohen

“My daughter is hungry and it’s her birthday today. Maybe you have some food left over that I can bring her to make her happy?”

This was said to me by an older gentleman who seemed to be in his early sixties while we were taking our food out to the street in order to serve it to the needy in the area. In Tel Aviv there are streets where there are many drug addicts who are so sick and weak that they’re unable to walk a few hundred meters to the soup kitchen where we’re serving hot meals. Because of that, we send out groups of volunteers to take food to those areas where there are lots of drug addicts because they can’t come to us.

On the same evening the elderly gentleman spoke to me, it was particularly busy and a lot of people were asking for food. However, that father’s request for for his daughter went straight to my heart. I stopped what I was doing and went with. We walked a few meters down the street where there was a woman, this man’s daughter, sitting on the ground, clearly addicted to hard-core drugs. We wished her a happy birthday, and she answered, “Today I’m twenty-nine years old.” After bringing her a plate of food and something to drink, the father and daughter shared their story; both of them have been addicted to drugs for years which ultimately landed them on the streets-it’s a vicious cycle we’ve unfortunately seen many times. After they had something to eat, we asked if we could pray for them, and they agreed. We told them about the drug treatment facilities we work with and shared testimonies of people we personally know who were able to escape the deadly cycle of drugs and crime through faith in God. We embraced them and brought them another “birthday” helping of food and drink.

We have a chance to meet many people at our outreach center, almost all of whom have a story that will break your heart. But something about meeting this father and daughter who are on the street together touched me deeply, and I can’t stop thinking about them. Now that they know we’re in their area every week, I pray that they will come back with open hearts: we will be there to pray for them, support them and hopefully help them on their way to a drug rehabilitation center we have connection with.

For two months now we’ve been reaching our goal of making 1,000 meals for the poor and needy every month through our project Feed Tel Aviv. Additionally, we cook these meals fresh and bring them directly to the outreach center. There are other organizations which send food which is often day old and past its prime. The food we’re preparing is fresh, homemade and nutritious, and the people we’re serving it to express their gratitude for the quality and come back for seconds and thirds.

So, who exactly are these needy individuals in Tel Aviv we’re reaching out to? To answer that, I’ll make use of a cliché: they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the picture above that I took at our outreach kitchen in south Tel Aviv tells it all:

The man standing in the foreground dressed in black is ultra-orthodox of Sephardic descent. Next to him in line is a secular, Ashkenazi Jewish man, and next to him is an Arab Muslim man. Finally, the man at the head of the line is a Sudanese refugee. From the picture you can see that we’re serving a very diverse cross section of the Israeli population!

There are also women who come to us for food who are working in prostitution, as well as the homeless and drug addicted. What these people all have in common is that they are hungry. We’ve discovered is that these people aren’t just hungry for food. Their souls are hungry for the Word of Truth; after they’ve sat and satisfied their physical hunger, some of them begin asking spiritual questions. Therefore, whenever we serve the immediate physical hunger of the needy, we also end up sharing the gospel, giving witness to what Yeshua has done in our lives and talking about the biblical prophesies which tell about who Israel’s Messiah is.

Just recently we shared with two drug addicted women who are involved in a lesbian lifestyle and living on the street. They were so open and hungry for the gospel, and we ended up praying for them. While we prayed for them, one of them began weeping for a half an hour. She repented for her lifestyle and said that she needs nothing short of the almighty hand of God to pull her out of her lifestyle (which involves highly addictive drugs).

Please continue to pray for these two ladies who come back every week, who are open and hungry for the truth, and in desperate need for a powerful encounter with God’s love to pull them out of the darkness, and that they would be willing to enroll in one of the drug treatment facilities run by believers that we’re involved with. Please pray that God gives us grace and wisdom and uses us in a mighty way to help the desprately lost and suffering we encounter every week.

All of this important work that we’re doing is thanks to your generous support, and therefore I want to say “thank you” with my whole heart in the name of all of those who receive food from us every week, both physical and spiritual food. Please continue to keep the Feed Tel Aviv project in your prayers. We know that the Lord has called us to support the poor and needy in our city, Tel Aviv, and you’re helping us fulfill that call.