(Click on image to ENLARGE; Photo info below story] Today, the NY Daily News ran a story about the Boro Park Masbia soup kitchen. The following are excerpts of the article:

It’s a scene Alexander Rapaport has observed far too often on his way to the Borough Park soup kitchen he runs – elderly Hasidic men or neatly-dressed Hasidic women going through garbage bins searching for food.

“Just this morning, I saw a very old man with a plastic bag going through the garbage,” said Rapaport, who is in charge of Masbia, a public kitchen serving hot, kosher dinners Sundays through Thursdays.

“As I tried to catch up with the man to tell him he didn’t have to do that, I ran into someone who recognized him and said he would help,” Rapaport said.

“At a time when we’re receiving more calls than ever, we’re receiving between 25% to 30% less food from the federal government,” said Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, executive director of Oneg Shabbos, a food pantry that gives out 1,100 food packages a week.

The number of Brooklynites who experienced difficulty affording needed food increased by 75% between 2003 and 2006.

About 84% of the households receiving food stamps used them up within three weeks and had to turn to soup kitchens or food pantries for the last part of the month.

During the last 12 months, 52% of Brooklyn’s emergency food providers have run out of food at one time or another. And all of the agencies are appealing for help.

“Coming here really helps,” one young mother said as she shared a meal with her small children at Masbia last week. “I work every day and I get food stamps, but I just can’t make ends meet.”

[Photo credits: REBEL Images R-L. Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch Of Oneg Shabbos, Rabbi Shmule Steinharter of Bikur Cholim of BP, Mr. Shlomo Torn of BPJCC, Mr. Alexander Rapaport of MASBIA and the NY Daily News reporter Joyce Shelby]

(Story From NY Daily News)