Communal Meals - Hot meals are served in community dining rooms in the former Soviet Union and parts of Central and Eastern Europe for destitute Jewish elderly as well as children and their families.

Through Day Center programs in the former Soviet Union, at-risk children’s material, emotional, developmental, and social needs are all addressed. Psychologists and other staff members work with the children and parents, often helping the latter to improve their parenting skills and secure jobs that will add to their household income.

Dietsky or Children’s SOS and Basic Needs Programs were established by JDC in the former Soviet Union to respond to urgent needs among the region’s Jewish children. They provide one-time or ongoing material assistance that may include food, medicines and medical equipment, warm clothing, shoes, and blankets, as well as help in paying for medical operations, essential home repairs, and family heating and utility bills.

Recently introduced in many Hesed welfare centers in the former Soviet Union, Food Cards, or “supermarket debit cards” enable clients to purchase products of their choice (with the exception of alcohol and cigarettes) at stores vetted by the Hesed for selection and price. The initiative gives clients access to fresher ingredients while restoring their sense of control over personal needs. The cards are also improving the efficiency of the Hesed network’s food delivery service and are replacing other food programs. Supermarket debit cards are also provided to vulnerable young Jewish families through the IFCJ-JDC Partnership for Children in the FSU, to needy Jews in Europe, and as part of the social assistance programs in Argentina.

Monthly packages containing items such as oil, sugar, rice, grains, tea, pasta, and condensed milk are provided to elderly who are able to cook for themselves, and to vulnerable children and their families.

Part of the Hesed network’s hunger relief program in the former Soviet Union and also distributed to impoverished Jews in Europe, the sets may include fish, dairy products, eggs, fruit, and other perishable items. They are delivered primarily to needy elderly Jews who lack the strength or mobility to go to the market regularly, but are still able to cook for themselves; and to vulnerable Jewish children and their families who depend on JDC assistance to meet their basic needs.

The International Fellowship for Christians and Jews (IFCJ)-JDC partnership is helping to ensure the material and social well-being of tens of thousands of Jewish children at risk in the former Soviet Union. The partnership was established to provide a long-term response to the intense unmet needs facing Jewish children throughout the region.

JDC developed and continues to support this long-running program in the former Soviet Union, which began as an outreach effort that provided young families with various forms of material assistance and engaged them in activities designed to encourage their involvement in Jewish community life. It has now become an important vehicle for identifying at-risk Jewish families and assuring the appropriate intervention. While continuing to provide nutritional assistance and baby equipment in response to urgent needs, it also offers preschool enrichment programs and parenting workshops that help support sound early childhood development.

Medical care includes medicines, medical tests and consultations, rehabilitation treatment and equipment, hospitalization, and surgery.

An important part of Jewish community welfare services in various countries in Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, and Asia, the winter relief program helps beneficiaries—mostly elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors and also impoverished children—purchase warm clothing, blankets, and non-perishable foods and pay their home heating and utility bills.