23 good reasons to support Pitchon-Lev ahead of 2024

Pitchon-Lev, which was founded in 1988, strives to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty that exists in Israel, providing food parcels to families on a weekly basis, clothing and appliances to those in need, assisting aid recipients with information and legal assistance, and developing educational empowerment initiatives for youth from the socio-geographical periphery.

When war broke out, Pitchon-Lev pivoted, moving to the forefront of the Israeli home front, bringing food, equipment, and support to families evacuated from their homes and members of the security forces - while continuing to assist its regular aid recipients.

1. Pitchon-Lev is a 'hands-on' organization that directly assists those in need every day. 
2. On October 8, its trucks were already in the Gaza border communities, bringing essentials to people in need. 
3. Within days from October 7, Pitchon-Lev established a new 3000-square-meter Emergency Logistics Center. 
4. In the past two and a half months, Pitchon-Lev has delivered over 117,000 food parcels, 89 tons of supplies, 16,300 baby bundles with formula and diapers, 12,500 toiletry sets, and 8,000 ready-to-eat meals to 120 communities and 121 IDF units. 
5. Since the beginning of the war, Pitchon-Lev's 200 professionals and volunteers have processed over 3,750 inquiries from regarding social welfare entitlements, ensuring the receipt of support worth over NIS 11 million in grants and equivalent services to Israeli citizens.   
6. The Knesset has designated Pitchon-Lev as the recommended agency to receive donations during the war, both from Israel and abroad. 
7. “Since the beginning of the war, there was not one request that I approached Pitchon-Lev about and was rejected,” said Shelly Tal Meron, a member of the Israeli Knesset. 
8. Pitchon-Lev currently operates a special hotline and provides face-to-face case management support in 14 hotels and centers housing displaced families. 
9. Pitchon-Lev assists those who have remained in their communities that have become ghost towns and are without services such as shops to buy essentials. 
10. Pitchon-Lev finds solutions to problems.  For example, Eliad A. needed disability-accessible accommodation due to his Parkinson's disease. He could not be evacuated before suitable accommodation could be found. Pitchon-Lev found a solution for him. 
11. Pitchon-Lev currently offers educational programs in almost 70 locations. 
12. Pitchon-Lev has been sending special gifts of appreciation to families of soldiers on the front. 
13. Pitchon-Lev assists over 160,000 citizens year-round to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty. 
14. One out of four families assisted by Pitchon-Lev is lifted out of the cycle of poverty in less than a year. 
15. Some 20,000 people volunteer at Pitchon-Lev every year. 
16. Pitchon-Lev helps people across all sectors of Israeli society irrespective of religion, race or gender: whether they are Jews, Arabs or Christians, ultra-Orthodox, religious or secular, or any of the other minority groups. 
17. Pitchon-Lev provides over 6,000 food parcels on a weekly basis to people in need including to single people or families with one or many children; the disabled; the elderly; new immigrants; the unemployed and 'working poor' who are struggling to make ends meet; single-parent families; or lone soldiers. 
18. Pitchon Lev has been working in collaboration with the Israeli government to establish a law to create a national authority for the fight against poverty. 
19. Pitchon-Lev's “Lehetiv” (Hebrew for “to do good") Program helps families facing financial difficulties, and helps them find practical and emotional support to overcome the challenges. 
20. Pitchon-Lev's “Program 7” enrolls at-risk youth from the social and geographic periphery in Israel beginning in 10th grade and lasting over seven years. 
21. Pitchon-Lev’s “Hamsa Program” has the goal of optimal integration of Arab youth into Israeli society. 
22. “Zchut Bekalut,” (“Rights in a Click”), a program run in cooperation with the National Insurance Institute and supported by the UJA – Federation of Greater Toronto, helps people in need receive all of the social welfare rights owed to them free of charge. 
23. “Pitchon-Lev is like a family,” says Samantha, a young American-Israeli who gave up her honeymoon in Italy to volunteer at Pitchon-Lev. 

Since the beginning of the war, Pitchon-Lev has been one of the organizations standing at the forefront of the Israeli home front, in addition to continuing to assist people in need in breaking the cycle of poverty. In order to support Pitchon-Lev, click here.

 This article was written in cooperation with Pitchon-Lev.