Seniors in need often receive excessive donations near the holidays. Julie Rosenthal, program management specialist for Asian studies, makes sure that they are fed the rest of the year, too.
Rosenthal runs a nonprofit program called “Food on the 15th.” The project has delivered 9,500 bags of groceries to hundreds of low-income seniors over the past six years, and is designed to introduce children of affluence to people who are struggling.
“I thought my kids were way too focused on themselves. There was dance and drama and all that, but it was all about them,” said Rosenthal. She needed something that would make her kids understand how privileged they were compared with others around them, so she organized parents, teachers and children to bag and deliver groceries to low income seniors. The key to the approach is for the kids to do more than fill a bin with canned peas and boxes of cereal. By handing the food to people in need, they get a more intimate look at what people who struggle might look like.
The story, “Food program puts kids face-to-face with the needy, not just at the holidays” was published in the Washington Post on November 21.
