The famous Chinese phrase “may you live in interesting times” has fully applied to KleinLife in the month of April. However, every challenge creates new opportunities and I’m happy to say that not only did we meet the new challenges, but we are also creating new programs for the future. Here is a recap of this challenging month:
Our meal deliveries have gone up from an average of 6,000 meals a month to almost 16,000 meals this April; almost a threefold increase! The number of seniors we have served has tripled. The main challenge was to ramp up the packaging and delivery efforts and I’m happy to say that our staff and volunteers have really come through making the system very efficient.
We have delivered almost 700 Passover packages to our seniors.
Staff are calling our regular participants twice weekly in order to make them feel less isolated and to connect them to any other resources they need.
We have become a Supersite for the Share Food Program and now food package distributions are being conducted in our parking lot twice a week.
We have started the KleinLife at Home program where our seniors can participate in some of the programs that were available at the center via YouTube, Zoom, or conference call.
STEM and Robotics programs switched to Zoom almost immediately after the closing of the building and continue to be well attended.
We have managed to secure emergency funds from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia Foundation, United Way, Meals on Wheels of America, W.W. Smith Foundation, Barra Foundation, Wawa Foundation, and Citizens Bank Foundation. More will be coming in May.
Last, but definitely not least, we have managed to accomplish all this without laying off a single member of the staff!
I would like to thank all of our funders and foundations for helping us out in these difficult times! A very special thanks goes to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia for stepping up to the plate at a moment’s notice to provide us with the necessary funds in order to continue our meal delivery services uninterrupted. Also, I would like to really thank our wonderful staff who continues to perform admirably, the Board of Directors for its support, and, finally, I’d like to thank all of the supporters of this wonderful organization.
May We Go From Strength to Strength!
Andre Krug
KleinLife President & CEO