20 Volunteers Feeding the Hungry and Helping Troubled Teens in Israel Shachen Tov – in English, Good Neighbor Association (GNA) – was started 17 years ago by a group of students at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It feeds more than 1,000 families every week and performs other social service functions ranging from tutoring and running a textbook library for children, to friendly visiting for lonely elders. Three things make this organization unique: First, is that it has no employees. It is run 100% by volunteers. Second, is that while it was started by college students and continues to be predominantly a college student organization, many of its volunteers have finished college but still continue to volunteer. And third, it recognizes that while the elderly and the disabled must be helped for life, families that include one or more healthy parent should not receive continuous aid. Families with one or more healthy parent are told up front that they will be getting food for a maximum of one year. In Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and in 11 other cities in Israel GNA is feeding the unemployed and the underemployed who without their help would go to sleep with empty stomachs. Additionally, GNA has taken volunteering to a new level by helping indigent people to develop self- confidence by encouraging them to give the only thing they have to offer – “time” to help others. In addition to grants for food, we made a $16,600 grant for furnishings and one year of program expenses for GNA to establish a multi-room destination in Jerusalem where troubled teens come in to talk out their problems in a relaxed “Coffee Shop” type setting with either social workers (paid by the City) or with GNA volunteers not much older than themselves. This project was so successful that they opened another a second youth club and we just made a $7,150 grant to help them with their first year of operations We are continuing our 15,000 shekels a month grant for food (a rate of approximately $51,400 a year) through December 31, 2018 but that still leaves a shortage of $64,200 that GNA needs to raise to continue to feed the 2,600 people it currently feeds and while they have the volunteer manpower, they need to raise still another $163,800 to feed the 210 families on their “waiting list.” They have ZERO overhead, dedicated volunteers and buy food at discounted prices. GNA’s wish is to feed more people. On average $780 can buy enough food to supply a family with the supplemental food it needs to ensure parents, children, singles (including the elderly and infirm) have sufficient nutritional meals for a year. How much does HOT want you to designate to GNA? As much as you can in multiples of $780.