37 Helping the Frail Elderly - New York PROJECT EZRA Project Ezra (PE) serves over 300 frail, isolated, and impoverished elderly Jews on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They suffer from economic, physical and/or psychological difficulties and are being helped by services provided through PE. Some of their services include subsidies for food and medicine to those whose Social Security benefits are insufficient to last the entire month. Additionally, they sponsor group programs and outings, housekeeping services, volunteer home visits, transportation, a food pantry and food package distributions at holiday times. Over the years, HOT has bought a woman a new bed that replaced one that she had been using for 67 years, which had springs popping out of it. We have bought tombstones so that five widows didn’t have to look at only dirt when they went to the cemetery plot where their husbands of fifty and sixty years were buried, and we have paid for funerals. In addition to financing Emergency Needs, HOT also funds a program which now provides $30 monthly stipends to 34 seniors who do not have enough income to buy “even the basics” (this program is similar to what we are doing in Florida – page 39). HOT also pays for more than 200 of these poor elderly to attend two festive holiday meals each year. For some of the attendees it is the only two times during the year they socialize with people they have known for years. We are asking our donors to designate: • $10,800 in increments of $360 (12 months at $30 per person) so we can give monthly supplements to 30 additional needy seniors. • $12,000 in any increment to give us more flexibility, when we get requests for Emergency Financial Aid.