This evening marks the end of my two year term as president of the board of directors of Jewish Family Service of Central NJ. As my term as President of JFS comes to an end, I want to take this opportunity to share the list of accomplishments with you and thank the staff, fellow board members, and community for your support. JFS has approximately 100 full and part time employees who service our many clients with needs ranging from a hot meal delivered to
their door, to play therapy for a child who can’t express themselves verbally, to Hurricane Sandy victims who needed to be rescued from an unsafe environments, to the aging Holocaust survivor needing homecare, to helping a couple adopt a child – JFS is there to help. Our Agency has the privilege of being the lead agency for the state of New Jersey in providing services for aging Holocaust Survivors to the 12 Jewish Family Service agencies across the state. In two years we have seen this grow from $1.5 million
in services to $2.5 million. Under my presidency, I visited all of those Jewish Family Service agencies when we performed our audit on behalf of the German Government. I gratefully acknowledge the Wilf Family for granting our own Café Europa Program for the Holocaust Survivors in Union County additional funds to enhance the program with a festive lunch and entertainment each month. It is greatly appreciated and attendance is record breaking. Our fundraisers, membership solicitations, and food drives have provided increased revenue and the community graciously responded when asked to provide funding for a new Kosher Meals on Wheels vehicle. The program, now in its 13th operation, serves 80 homebound elderly a day. While on the topic of food and nutrition, we started an Urban Community garden in front of our offices in Elizabeth which yielded over 800 pounds of fresh produce last year. This year we hope to produce 1200 pounds. The produce was distributed to the homebound elderly by our social workers and nurses on their home visits. We continue to service over 350 needy individuals and families a month with packages through our Food Pantry Program. Over 1000 emergency packages are given out a year as well.Our Homecare and Home Health Aide services
 are the hallmark of providing vital assistance for homebound elderly to age in place in the comfort of their own homes. We are also the provider of training for new Home Health Aides through funding from the Union County Division on Aging. Thanks to Mark Ginsberg of Garden Homes for spearheading the renovation of a brand new state of the art Home Health Aide Training Center with grants from three Union County based funders.In response to people who are able to pay for home health aide service, we launched Caregivers at Home, a private pay service.The Older Adult Services Department continues to innovate new ways to assist the frail elderly. We continue to work with the Care Transitions Collaboration Program to help reduce hospital readmission rates for seniors thanks to a grant from the Grotta Fund for Senior Care and the Elizabethtown Healthcare Foundation. Our newest program to help Caregivers of Alzheimer’s and Dementia Patients funded by the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, and the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest is up and running with monthly Alzheimer’s Support Groups and a more intense program modeled from the New York University Caregiver Intervention Program. As always, JFS is at the forefront of developing programs to respond to the needs of the community.Through generous funding from the Robin Hood Foundation, MAZON, The Grotta Fund for Senior Care and the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro West, we were able to provide all kinds of services to the victims of Hurricane Sandy last year. I am proud to have played a part in this vibrant organization and leave it fiscally sound. Through the help of Eric Harvitt and many others, our financial commitments were solidified into one sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest.I enjoyed working with the dedicated staff and board members
firsthand. The cooperation show by the staff, plus my many fellow board members are what makes JFS a winning team. I welcome our new board members to this exciting and vibrant organization, some of whom are second generation leaders.Last but not least, I want to extend my best wishes to David Levenberg as the New President. I am sure that he will make an excellent leader. I have enjoyed my two years as president and it has been an honor to serve you.