b'Featured Impact StoryJewish Family and Community Services: Timeless Values, Timely Services We are living in unprecedented times, and while our values are timeless, the need to put them into action has never been more urgent. One local organization that has acutely experienced the increased demand for urgent needs of our community as a result of the global pandemic is Jewish Family & Community Services (JFCS) East Bay.JFCS East Bay has been providing essential mental health and social services since 1877. Their clients have included everyone from Holocaust survivors and the elderly to working-class families struggling to make ends meet. Today, in the age of COVID-19, there is one thing that virtually every JFCS East Bay client has struggled with: increasing isolation and the escalating necessity for lifesaving services. With the support of two $75,000 emergency grants totaling $150,000 from the Federations COVID-19 Response Fund, Avi Rose, JFCSs former Executive Director, ledShifting to virtual programs and assistance his organization to launch the COVID-19during the pandemic meant that some people Emergency Assistance Program, offering adidnt have the technology to receive menu of services including emergency financiallife-sustaining psychological and social services. assistance, mental health services, foodSo JFCS East Bay also raised funds to deliver delivery, parenting support, and more.Chromebooks to refugees and low-income families. It was clear that we had to start delivering services remotely to clients. It took a lot ofJFCS East Bay has made an enormous impact flexibility and creativity from our staff andunder such extraordinary circumstancessince volunteers, but we moved quickly to meet theMarch, over $200,000 in support has been surge of needs. A particularly creative pivotdisbursed to 222 Bay Area households. In part, was changing the food delivery process. Wethanks to Avi who recently retiredleaving the have a long history of delivering holiday meals,organization in the capable hands of Robin but all of a sudden, we were in a situationMencher, the new executive director. Robin has where we had clients who were either short ofthe benefit of starting on a solid foundation of money to get food or just not in a position insupport from JFCS East Bay staff and terms of physical vulnerability to go shopping.volunteerscontinuing their work to connect Shortly after the shutdown, JFCS East Bayand empower the diverse community. connected with a food distributor and began delivering produce and grocery cards to over 100 East Bay families. 11'