OUR MISSION 📦
WE ARE a nonprofit organization delivering food boxes and critical assistance to Israeli families in need.
We believe that no family in Israel deserves to sit around a bare Shabbos table. Our mission is to ensure that as we celebrate Shabbos with an abundance of comforting foods, those who are living in poverty aren’t left out.
WHY SHABBOS?
Shabbos is a day of joy & rest
But for a family in financial crisis, Shabbos can exacerbate their misery. It only takes a box of pure Shabbos deliciousness to change everything.
finances
By far the most expensive day of the week, Shabbos is celebrated with wine, fish and meat. But how can families in financial freefall sustain the costly burden of making Shabbos?
Tomchei Shabbos ensures that Shabbos expenses don’t push Israeli families over the edge of poverty and into disaster.
food
All week long, children living in poverty can rely on school lunch programs to get by. But on Shabbos, they’re stuck. Stuck at home with nothing to eat; stuck with the shame of having no food to offer friends and visitors; stuck with only misery for company.
Tomchei Shabbos restores the sustenance of Shabbos to their homes.
Functinality
Shabbos is a time for family bonding and connection. But if you add poverty to the mix, the formula changes. Uninterrupted family time can become a force of destruction, inflicting emotional havoc and instability that tears the family apart.
Tomchei Shabbos is rebuilding healthy families – one Shabbos box at a time.
Together, we can give nourishment and stability to Israeli families in need and impact their food and finances + family bonding + healthy functioning.
30 years ago, Tomchei Shabbos Israel began in a tiny windowless storage room in Jerusalem, where two friends joined together to fill boxes for families in the neighborhood. It started with just 18 boxes, and soon swelled to 30, then 50, then hundreds of boxes of nourishment.
Today, we are the go-to for families living with the shame of deprivation. It only takes one phone call to unleash year-round or seasonal relief that is changing the landscape of poverty and carrying families from the worst of times to the sweetest of Shabbos and Yom Tov memories.
OUR STORY
HOW IT ALL STARTED
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
OUR STORY HOW IT ALL STARTED HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Your Impact
With the generosity of hosts and hostesses like you, we’ve been banishing uncertainty and giving the warmth of home-cooked Shabbos meals since 1992.
845
Boxes delivered
weekly
50
New requests for help each year
$4.7 M.
Annual budget for services
Step 1
A family is referred to Tomchei Shabbos Israel for emergency relief
Step 2
Our discrete vetting process is set in motion to uncover the nature of the family’s needs
Step 3
The family is matched with a gracious host, someone just like you
Step 4
Boxes are filled with non-perishable food items all week – from Sunday to Wednesday
Step 5
On Thursday, fresh food and produce are added to the boxes
Step 6
On Thursday afternoon, the deliveries across the country get rolling
Step 7
Families open their doors to a box full of fresh groceries from a generous donor like you