Be’er-Sova’s Restaurant for the Needy

The Restaurant for the Needy supplies hot meals 6 days a week to all comers, no questions asked. The meals are nutritious, tasty and well-balanced. The restaurant is open six days a week from 11:00-13:30; on Friday the diners are given a take-away meal for Sabbath.

With the exception of our cook, it is run by volunteers. In addition to the meals served on the premises, the kitchen prepares hot meals to elderly individuals, and to families who have been plunged into sudden emergency situations.

Among the diners are the elderly, new immigrants, the unemployed, the mentally challenged and single mothers.

Be’er-Sova’s Dining Room

Prepared food is brought by van from Be’er-Sova’s kitchen. This is a joint project with the charitable organization “Meir Panim”.

Sources for Food

In addition to the food purchased on the wholesale market, we also received donations from:

• Farmers: Much of Be’er-Sova's produce is donated by agricultural settlements in the Beersheba area as well as from the local fruit and vegetable market.
• Manufacturers and wholesalers: Be’er-Sova also receives donations of packaged foodstuffs from various manufacturers, some of which are nearing their expiry date.
• Bakeries: Local bakeries daily donate their excess loaves and rolls.
• Volunteer “collectors”: Volunteers and children collect canned goods which they bring to the restaurant.

Volunteers and Employees of the Restaurant

In addition to our paid chef and his assistant,the bulk of the work at the restaurant is carried out by volunteers: pensioners, students, people between jobs, people in recovery and many others who simply want to volunteer. There are also 6-7 workers at the restaurant who have been ordered by the courts to give public service.  They all work together behind the scenes to prepare the food, serve the meals, package the meals for the schools and the meals-on-wheels program and do the cleaning up. On Fridays only volunteers work at the restaurant.

$100 will provide 100 meals