Encino : B’nai B’rith Members Deliver Food to Needy

Boxes filled with gefilte fish, frozen chicken, potatoes, eggs and other food were delivered to needy people by volunteers early Sunday morning, continuing a holiday tradition started by the Encino B’nai B’rith almost 20 years ago.

“Once you do it once, you will always come back again and again,” said Margery Grossman of Encino, who has helped with the food distribution with her husband, Robert, for the past five years around Hanukkah.

Volunteers made 360 deliveries throughout the Valley as well as to Santa Monica and other parts of Los Angeles, said David Kaye, community service chairman for the Encino lodge.

Each recipient gets two boxes of donated food worth about $65, said Marvin Flagg, who was in charge of distribution.

Two other San Fernando Valley lodges--Rishon B’nai B’rith in Encino and Knesset B’nai B’rith--helped make deliveries.

“It helps a lot,” said Rabbi Martin Twersky of Shomrei Torah synagogue in West Hills. Twersky picked up food from behind Gelson’s market in Encino for 14 families who recently emigrated from Russia.

The oil, eggs and potatoes are important for the Hanukkah celebration in making latkes --potato pancakes.

Volunteers said some of the elderly shut-ins who receive gift baskets often just want someone to talk to. Last year, the Grossmans made one delivery to an elderly woman who insisted on giving them a miniature tea set.

“I keep it with my finest china,” Margery Grossman said. “I didn’t want to accept it from someone who had nothing, but it was so meaningful to her.”

When they made a delivery for a deaf group in North Hollywood, the people there seemed overwhelmed, Robert Grossman said.

“It was like they were getting something from the sky,” he said.

“Manna from heaven,” added his wife.