{"id":307372,"date":"2025-11-22T16:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/307372\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T16:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:39:09","slug":"hershs-fridge-offered-free-kosher-food-when-snap-benefits-froze-the-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/307372\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hersh\u2019s Fridge\u2019 offered free, kosher food when SNAP benefits froze \u2013 The Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hersh's<\/p>\n

Hersh\u2019s Community Fridge in Skokie, Illinois. Courtesy of Solu<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Hannah<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Hannah Feuer<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNovember 21, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

When SNAP payments froze during the government shutdown earlier this month, Rabbi Hody Nemes worried about a particularly vulnerable group: kosher families, who already pay 20-50% higher prices for groceries and have fewer food pantries available to them.<\/p>\n

Across Chicago, \u201ccommunity fridges\u201d have long offered a lifeline to food insecure families \u2014 outdoor refrigerators stocked by volunteers, where anyone can take what they need, no questions asked. But for kosher households, those fridges were effectively off-limits.<\/p>\n

Solu, an Orthodox Jewish social services nonprofit, decided to fix that. Last month, it opened the area\u2019s first kosher community fridge in a parking lot in Skokie, a Chicago suburb with a large Orthodox population. With the blessing of the Goldberg-Polin family, Solu named it \u201cHersh\u2019s Community Fridge\u201d \u2014 a tribute to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the slain Gaza hostage whose parents once attended Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Skokie.<\/p>\n

At Hersh\u2019s Fridge, the food is divided into three sections: refrigerated groceries bearing a reliable hechsher, or kosher certification; food cooked in kosher homes; and a pantry with kosher-certified shelf-stable goods. Volunteers monitor the fridge for compliance with kosher food standards \u2014 not an uncomplicated task for a fridge where anyone can drop off food at any hour of the day. A club of around 100 students at Ida Crown in \u201cHersh\u2019s Fridge Club<\/a>\u201d have pitched in, ensuring that each homemade item includes a label<\/a> attesting, on the honors system, that it was prepared in accordance with Orthodox halacha.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to set a standard so that people can feel confident taking food, and that they won\u2019t open the fridge and discover, like, a box of bacon and Popeyes,\u201d Nemes said.<\/p>\n

Demand surpassed expectations, spiking significantly as soon as SNAP benefits paused, said Nemes. Volunteers struggled to keep the fridge stocked fast enough.<\/p>\n

That revealed to organizers that there was more need in their community than initially thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in our shul community at Skokie Valley, someone approached and said, \u2018When is the fridge starting?\u2019 And our assumption was they wanted to get involved. And they were like, \u2018No, I need to know, because I need to be able to take,\u2019\u201d Nemes said.<\/p>\n

Kosher food is available at pantries like The Ark<\/a> in Northbrook, about a half-hour away, but the fridge provides two advantages traditional food banks don\u2019t: 24\/7 access and anonymity.<\/p>\n

Judaism considers anonymous giving the highest form of charity, Nemes noted \u2014 a principle Hersh\u2019s Fridge fulfills. Just as important, he added, is anonymous receiving, which allows people to maintain their dignity.<\/p>\n

That anonymity matters, said Ilana Horwitz, an assistant professor of Jewish Studies and sociology at Tulane University who researches Jewish poverty. Shame and stigma, she said, are among the biggest barriers preventing financially vulnerable Jews from seeking help.<\/p>\n

Her research uncovered many such cases, including a Modern Orthodox woman with an advanced degree who appeared financially secure but was quietly overwhelmed by medical bills. Rather than go to the local food bank \u2014 where the volunteers were often her fellow congregants \u2014 she drove 20 miles to one where she wouldn\u2019t be recognized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a particular kind of stigma because of this narrative we have in the Jewish community of like, Oh, Jews have been very upwardly mobile. Jews are really successful,\u201d Horwitz said. \u201cAnybody who sort of falls outside of that scope feels like they did something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leah Rubin, a Solu board member, said she experienced her own wake-up call at her day job as a psychotherapist. She routinely offers snacks like chips or candy to the children who come into her office. But one day, a child spotted a can of tuna in her pantry and asked for that instead \u2014 explaining she hadn\u2019t eaten all day.<\/p>\n

Rubin later learned the family relied on a kosher food bank that offered pickup only a few times a month and felt uncomfortable asking for additional help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became really clear that within the Jewish community in particular, there is a need for an anonymous, easy, grab-and-go\u201d service that enabled people \u201cto feed themselves and their families in a dignified way,\u201d Rubin said.<\/p>\n

Nemes emphasized that the fridge doesn\u2019t just serve Jewish families. He said it\u2019s been especially moving to see neighbors of different faiths take food from a fridge named for Hersh, who was involved in interfaith efforts, using soccer to connect Israeli and Palestinian children. Still, he cautioned, the community shouldn\u2019t assume Jewish families don\u2019t also need help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a suburban community where a lot of people have said, \u2018Is there really need here?\u2019\u201d Nemes said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing that it is needed, based on the response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Nemes contributed to the Forward from 2013 to 2015, as a staff reporter for some of that time.<\/p>\n

Hannah Feuer joined the Forward as a general assignment reporter in May 2025 after two years as a culture reporter at Seven Days, an independent weekly in Burlington, Vermont. Originally from the Washington, D.C., area, she is a 2023 graduate of Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School of Journalism.<\/p>\n

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