Elie Wiesel, the well-known author and Holocaust survivor, described hunger in his book Night, saying, “Bread, soup—these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.”

In Israel today, 25% of the population lives in poverty. Many of them are working poor who have minimum wage jobs and just barely eke out a meager living. These families are the fortunate poor, but, even they often reach the third week of the month not knowing how they will feed their family for the final week. Then there are the 400,000 who live in dire poverty, not knowing how they will eat tomorrow.

 Working through Israel’s social services network, soup kitchens and charities, as well as direct distribution, Bridges for Peace is giving 70 tons of food each month, providing more than 28,000 hungry people with life-sustaining food. Reaching out with Christian love, we touch the lives of people in 52 communities across Israel.

Dimona is a city in southern Israel where many live in poverty. Ela and her eight children live there. The youngest is only 8 months old and the oldest child, 15. Life was never easy for the large family existing on limited means. But recently, Ela’s husband left her. That’s when things got desperate. She asked her parents for help, but they had nothing to give. Imagine Ela’s pain as she looked into the eyes of her hungry children. Things were very bad. Then she found help from the Heart to Heart organization in Dimona. They provided her with clothing for the children, but, even more importantly, with food—food provided by Bridges for Peace. It was literally life saving. When she found out the food was from Christians from around the world who care about the well-being of Jewish families in Israel, she was overwhelmed with amazement and gratitude. Now she has hope for a better future and the satisfaction of knowing that her children have food to eat.

At this very moment, our Christian staff is preparing food bags, our trucks are delivering food to immigrants, widows, children, and Holocaust survivors all over Israel. Today, 28,000 of them are eating because Bridges for Peace is here distributing food donated by caring Christians.