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 Hunger and malnutrition are prevalent throughout the Jaffa Institute's service areas. In Jaffa and south Tel Aviv alone, 53% of the population lives at poverty level or below. When we began our after school program 1982, we provided sandwiches to the children to tie them over until they would eat later at home. However, it was soon realized that many of these children were returning to their counselors for second or third sandwiches. Our social workers knew it was time to understand the larger context.
Our staff met with the parents of the children who participate in our programming to understand the reasons for the children's poor diet. It then became clear that the majority of parents simply could not afford to properly feed their families.
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 To combat the widespread hunger and malnutrition found in our service areas the Jaffa Institute executes a three-fold coordinated effort. Fight Against Hunger is a unique initiative that targets hunger and malnutrition during our after school enrichment activities, in the schools, via summer camp, and in the home by providing hot meals, bag lunches and food parcels to some of Israel's most needy.
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Hot Lunch Program
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After School Activity Centers
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 A hungry mind cannot concentrate, a hungry body does not take initiative, a hungry child loses all desire to play and study. Since no child can be an active learner on an empty stomach, the Jaffa Institute operates a free hot meal program to ensure that its students receive at least one hot, nutritious meal a day. The program now serves 700 children daily who participate in the Institute's after school enrichment programs in Neve Ofer, Jaffa Dalet, Bat Yam, Bet Shemesh, and our main center in Jaffa. With only a single hot meal a day, we have seen significant changes in the demeanor of under-nourished children. Children who were sleepy, or could not sit still have now become much more attentive students and active participants. In the words of struggling single-parent Iris Vazanah, whose two girls are in Jaffa Institute after school programming: "I ask the girls every evening what they ate for lunch at the Institute. At least then I know that from lunch to lunch the girls are eating. It helps to ease my mind a little".
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Summer Camp
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 The famous Jaffa Institute Summer Camps are anticipated by children year-round. One of the only two-month long summer programs in Israel, the camps are open to all of the Institute's Moadonit children -as well as children in our wider service areas- and take place at all of our program sites. All children in the camp receive nutritious hot lunches, sandwiches, and snacks daily.
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A Sandwich for Every Child
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 The Jaffa Institute makes and distributes to area schools over 700 sandwiches daily for children who are not able to attend the Jaffa Institute's afternoon program and do not have access to our standard hot meals. The daily sandwich program not only provides a nutritious lunch to children who would otherwise go hungry, but also provides part-time jobs to three unemployed women. Every morning the women arrive to our Food Distribution Center at 5:30 AM to begin preparing the sandwiches. Each of the packages comes with a sandwich and a fruit or vegetable.
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Food Distribution Program
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 While the success of our sandwich and hot lunch programs were astounding, the children were still returning to a home lacking food and parents lacking nutrition. To combat the broader ills of hunger and malnutrition in our service area, the Jaffa Institute established and operates a Food Distribution Center (www.mercazmazon.org) to serve Jaffa and south Tel Aviv. The program provides severely impoverished families - referred to our staff by the City of Tel Aviv's Department of Welfare, and community and school social workers - with bi-monthly deliveries of nutritious food. Parcels arrive at the recipient's door in discreet packaging and contain basics such as oil, vinegar, flour, sugar, bottled water, pastas, rice, tomato sauce, nuts, canned vegetables, nutritious snack foods, soups, tuna, and more.
The Institute recently began including deliveries of three kilograms of meat to 100 families every three weeks. During the holidays, all the parcels include gift vouchers to local grocery stores so that all of the recipients can purchase meat for their holiday meals. Further, for recipients with a baby in the household or specific dietary needs, relevant items are incorporated into their packages.
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