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After completing 120 Pesach distributions, Met Council has set a new record by providing food to over 180,000 people for Pesach this year. Met Council ran the largest ever Pesach food distribution in America by providing free Pesach food to just about every mosod, shul, yeshiva and Jewish organization in New York. This year’s successful efforts were profiled over Yom Tov in the New York Daily News which detailed the doubling of Pesach protein including 66,000 pounds of chicken; 50,000 pounds of eggs; 25,000 pounds of tilapia; 25,000 pounds of tuna; 35,000 pounds of jarred gefilte fish and 4,000 pounds of frozen gefilte fish.

From Bais Yaakov of Boro Park to the UJO of Williamsburg to the Bronx Jewish Community Council, Met Council provides Pesach food to every segment of the community that is in need during Pesach.

“We start planning for Pesach six month before,” explained David G. Greenfield, CEO of Met Council, “We work with local community leaders, Rabbonim, shuls and yeshivas to identify what each local community needs. We then reach out to kosher vendors around the country to make sure that we get the best possible products for the best possible prices. Boruch Hashem, we buy most of our food below wholesale costs thanks to longstanding relationships with the largest vendors. That allows us to give out much more food than anyone else in the country,” Greenfield explained of the $6,100,000 Met Council Pesach effort.

“This year was historic. We gave out 1000 tons of food through 997 volunteers and 120 community based organizations – all free. We even doubled the amount of protein this year to over 200,000 pounds of chicken, fish and eggs through our new Pesach protein campaign. So this year we gave out better food to more people at more locations than ever before,” explained Greenfield.

Met Council also provided almost $500,000 to 2,593 households in specially coded American Express Food Cards that can only be used in kosher supermarkets for Pesach. That allowed thousands of families in need to buy food for Yom Tov in a dignified way.

“Pesach is by far the most expensive Yom Tov on the calendar. The reason that we expand our year-round food distribution to 180,000 people is because so many people who struggle year-round, just can’t make ends meet on Pesach without a little help. That’s why we literally spend half of our year at Met Council preparing for Pesach. I can’t think of anything more meaningful then helping hundreds of thousands of people of all backgrounds have Simchas Yom Tov,” Greenfield concluded.