Passover Seder Food Delivered to Needy

West Hills resident Steve Pollack and his wife, Roz, loaded 12 boxes of food into the trunk and back seat of his Toyota Avalon sedan in a back alley in Tarzana on Sunday.

The boxes, filled with frozen Kosher chicken, fish, eggs, wine and other food items that make up the traditional Jewish Passover feast, were delivered by the Pollacks to six needy Jewish families in Venice for their Passover meals. Passover begins April 10.

“It’s sad when these people open up their refrigerators and find nothing in it,” said Steve Pollack, a member of Encino B’nai B’rith, the group that organized the deliveries.

The Pollacks were among about 50 lodge members and their families who delivered more than six tons of food to 310 families in the Valley and Santa Monica.

David Kaye, community service chairman of the Encino lodge, was one of the organizers who started this holiday tradition 23 years ago when members began delivering boxes of food to Jewish families without enough money for Passover meals. Each family received two boxes of food, worth about $80, he said.

“It really means a lot to these families when we bring the food over for Passover,” Kaye said. “That is our aim, because I cannot see anybody going without food.”

On Saturday, 30 members packed the food, donated by the Encino B’nai B’rith Food Bank in Chatsworth. The next day, in addition to lodge members, volunteers from Victory Outreach in West Los Angeles, a program that helps at-risk youths, ex-convicts and adults overcoming drug addictions, loaded the boxes into the cars for delivery.

“Dave’s a good guy, and he’s doing good work here,” said Deyane Landrum, director of Victory Outreach. “He asked us if we could help and we gladly volunteered because we believe in him.”