WEST HARTFORD, CONN. (March 10, 2017) – For many Connecticut sports fans, March is all about basketball. But struggling families are often preoccupied by the difficulty of putting food on the table and caring for little ones. The 2017 March Madness Community Needs Drive is an opportunity to help our neighbors in need by donating staple grocery and baby care items. 

During the three weeks of March Madness – the NCAA Division I Basketball Championships, from March 14 to April 4, 2017 – several Jewish organizations, schools, and synagogues will serve as drop-off locations for community donations of tuna, peanut butter, cereal, and baby supplies such as diapers, pull-ups, wipes and baby shampoo.  Donations will be distributed by the Anja Rosenberg Kosher Food Pantry at Jewish Family Services, which provides nutritious, kosher food to those in need in the Jewish community and beyond, and by Families in Crisis, a Hartford-based nonprofit organization that serves children and families of incarcerated people. 

“We ask that food donations be kosher, so that observant Jewish clients can also benefit from them,” explains Jo Schubert, a program officer at Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford who is overseeing the drive. “The most common kosher symbols on food packaging include the U in a circle (for OU, or the Orthodox Union) and the K in a circle (for OK, or OK Kosher Certification).”

The following drop-off locations are participating in this year’s Needs Drive:

• Congregation Beth Ahm, 362 Palisado Avenue, Windsor
• Congregation Kol Haverim, 1079 Hebron Avenue, Glastonbury
• Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation-Emek Shalom, 55 Bushy Hill Road, Simsbury
• Hebrew High School of New England, 300 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford
• Sigel Hebrew Academy, 53 Gabb Road, Bloomfield
• Mandell JCC, 335 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford
• Solomon Schechter Day School, 26 Buena Vista Road, West Hartford
• Temple Beth Hillel, 20 Baker Lane, South Windsor
• Temple Sinai, 41 West Hartford Road, Newington

A community drop-off day will also be held on Sunday, March 26, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Community Services Building Parking Lot on the Zachs Campus, 333 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford. 

To learn more about the March Madness Community Needs Drive, please contact Jo Schubert at jschubert@jewishhartford.org or 860.727.6139.