Page 6 - Boca Exposure - May '22

Page 6, Boca Exposure
Boca Helping Hands Receives 1,400 Pounds Of Food

From Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen Restaurant & Caterers

As A Passover Gift, Feeding Many In Need

Restaurants And Grocery on Friday, April 15, offering it
Stores Asked To Donate To to those in need of a meal.

Boca Helping Hands
Boca Helping Hands hopes that other restaurants,
cafés, and grocery stores will
Boca Helping Hands (BHH) received more than 1,400 consider donating food to the
pounds of food from Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen Restaurant organization, following in
& Caterers, a scratch kitchen in West Boca Raton that makes Ben’s Deli’s footsteps.
each meal fresh. When the restaurant closed in observance of “We are so pleased to
Passover, it was left with a large amount of food that would donate the food to Boca
otherwise go to waste. Boca Helping Hands picked up the food Helping Hands to share our
holiday with those in need,”
said Rachel Stone, Ben’s
Palliative Care Deli director of catering and
assistant manager. “It does
And The Health feel really good to let us
extend that notion of feeding Ben’s Deli Staff
people who are most in need

Care System of a good meal.” five Palm Beach County locations and served nearly 80,000 hot
meals. The organization expands access to affordable medical,
This act of major giving isn’t limited to Ben’s Deli of

Boca Raton. Each of the seven New York based locations also
dental and behavioral care through its partnerships with
participates in food recovery efforts within their communities. Genesis Community Health (serving clients at clinics in Boca
By Steven E. Reznick, “Having grown up living in eight different places by the age Raton and Boynton Beach) and Florida Atlantic University’s
M.D., FACP of 14, I am hypersensitive to the plight of the homeless and Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing Community Based Clinics
I attended my local hungry,” said Ronnie Dragoon, Ben’s Deli CEO and founder. (serving residents in West Palm Beach). In addition, BHH sends
hospital’s weekly Zoom “Receiving leftover prepared food from Ben’s Deli is a weekend meals home with food-insecure elementary school
educational conference tremendous blessing,” said Bill Harper, BHH director of food students via the BHH Backpacks Program and assists working
recently. The topic was and warehouse operations. “This food is used right away in families with the rising cost of childcare through the Children’s
“palliative care” with the our hot meal program to feed local families in need. Ben’s has Assistance Program (CAP).
lecture delivered by a dean been faithful through the years with their donations at Passover, With an increased focus on client self-sufficiency, BHH

of the medical school who and we always look forward to this significant assistance. awards scholarships for qualified candidates to attend
is also the chairperson Partnerships with local restaurants are vital to carrying out our accredited vocational training classes that prepare them for
of the Palliative Care mission at Boca Helping Hands.” careers in the healthcare, information technology, construction,
Division. Her career began “Surging food prices and supply chain issues are affecting and transportation industries. BHH also offers free English as
as a hospitalist physician caring for inpatients in the hospital all areas of our hunger relief programs. We’re purchasing food a Second Language (ESOL) classes, courses in nutrition, and
setting. After practicing for several years as a hospitalist, she to subsidize our decreased inventory, and wholesale prices have other life skills. In addition, staff and volunteer mentors counsel
reentered a training program and did a fellowship in palliative increased,” said Greg Hazle, BHH executive director. “With the unemployed and underemployed in basic workplace skills
care. She then went on to become involved in both hospice increased prices, our client’s dollar stretches less at the grocery and help them polish resumes and search for jobs.
and palliative care programs in an academic setting before store, so they have to rely on us more. Unfortunately, that means Boca Helping Hands is a partner agency of The Town of
arriving in South Florida at our local medical school. Boca Helping Hands has to buy more food at a higher cost.” Palm Beach United Way. Since 1945, the Town of Palm Beach
The message I received from the program is that palliative Restaurants, cafés, or grocery stores that would like to help United Way has been committed to improving lives and building
care is designed to provide relief of anxiety and symptoms can reach out to info@bocahelpinghands.org. strong communities throughout Palm Beach County by focusing
from treatment of diseases. It involves spending time with About Boca Helping Hands on programs and priorities that promote education, health, and
patients and their loved ones, listening to them, and engaging Boca Helping Hands (BHH) is a community-based financial stability.

in conversation while working with their physicians to make nonprofit that provides food, medical and financial assistance Charity Navigator named Boca Helping Hands a Four-

them more comfortable with the treatment choices they to meet basic human needs as well as education, job training Star Charity for the 15th consecutive year in June 2021.
make. It is not just an end-of-life option, but it can be. and guidance to create self-sufficiency. Through its various Boca Helping Hands is located at 1500 N.W. First Court,

The lesson taught was that palliative care was an programs, BHH assists over 27,000 people annually. Boca Raton, FL 33432. For more information, please visit
additional layer of care or service to assist patients, families, In 2021, BHH distributed more than 70,000 pantry bags from BocaHelpingHands.org.
and health care givers to set goals for their care and
move toward achieving them in a less stressful and more
comfortable setting. The lecturer cited several peer reviewed
research studies that showed that the satisfaction level and
quality of life amongst patients, families and caregivers were
improved when a hospital stay included palliative care.
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