A New Model for Success
We are proud to share with you the exciting success of a new program model that JFS is ...
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Welcoming our new Director of Addictions and Mental Health Services
We are excited to announce the appointment of Lauren Hardy as the new Director of Addictions and Mental ...
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The Living Room: Support Groups for Community
October 7th, 2023 was just a regular day in the lives of many communities. October 7th was a ...
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Celebrating Volunteers Who Bring Compassion to Life
On September 4th, volunteers from all JFS programs were celebrated and thanked at a special Volunteer Appreciation event. ...
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Celebrating 40 Years of Nourishing Lives
This Hunger Action Month, we pause to reflect on our shared journey-40 years of nourishing lives and fostering ...
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New Canada Disability Benefit
Learn about the new Canada Disability Benefit (beginning July 2025) and how it's related to the existing Disability ...
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Global Demographic Report on Jewish Holocaust Survivors
In January 2024, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) released the Global Demographic Report on ...
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Thank you for Lighting the Way!
Together, we raised over $420,000 to support more than 3,000 people through JFS' vital programs and services. [Photography ...
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Announcing our Chai Raffle winners!
JFS is pleased to announce the winners of our first-ever Chai Raffle! Winners were drawn at 9pm, May ...
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Collaborating to Provide Homelessness Services
For years, JFS has been working collaboratively with community members to shape programs and services. From the reports ...
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Lighting the Way – 18 Years of Chai Impact
2024 is the 18th, or Chai anniversary of our most significant fundraiser, JFS Innovators. In that time, the ...
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Get ready for spring with the Vancouver Jewish Community Garden
The Spring Equinox is right around the corner and the Vancouver Jewish Community Garden is officially ready for ...
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A Holistic Approach to Senior Wellness: Mind, Body, and Spirit
Being healthy is not a "one-size-fits-all" concept: it looks different for everyone. Enter holistic wellness, which acknowledges that ...
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Finding Hope: Overcoming Mental Health Stigma
In recent years, the topic of mental health has been just about everywhere: in conversations, on billboards, and ...
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Celebrating the Holidays: Tips to Lower Stress
Whether it be Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Winter Solstice or Festivus for the rest of us, most cultures and ...
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JFS Has a New Permanent Home
Jewish Family Services (JFS) is excited to announce the purchase of a commercial building at 2929 Commercial Drive ...
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Thank you for nourishing our community!
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in Project Isaiah to help bring healthy and nutritious food ...
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Message from the CEO regarding Israel
This weekend, during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, a day synonymous with spiritual healing and reflection, Hamas ...
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Vancouver Jewish Community Garden
The Vancouver Jewish Community Garden is in full bloom. Click Here to Learn More
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Reflections From our UBC Dietetics Interns
Among its many roles in our community, JFS is an educational hub that emphasizes skill-building and empowerment for ...
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Project Isaiah is coming up soon!
For years, Project Isaiah has been a community-wide food drive collecting non-perishables. Each year, you've stepped up and ...
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Food Bank or Food Hub: What’s in a name?
Hunger Action Month is here again! At JFS, we are working on food access issues, hunger, and food ...
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World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
In partnership with Jewish Family Services, Kerrisdale Oakridge Marpole Better at Home, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater ...
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The Grand Opening of the VJCG!
MindsEye Photography by Tybie; Nucleus Photography by Efrat Gal-Or On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the community came together to ...
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The Significance of Language in Counseling: Fostering LGBTQ2S+ Inclusivity
How do service providers such as JFS create a welcoming environment for LGBTQ2S+ clients? It's an important question ...
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Thank you for Imagining the Future!
Together, we raised over $442,000 to support more than 3,000 people through JFS' critical programs and services, including food ...
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Nourishing Bodies, Minds, and Spirits
On the sunny afternoon of May 11th, 50 people from JFS’ community joined together at the Kitchen for B’tayavon: A ...
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Uniting Communities through Food
The Bvulgari Chapter of the Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW-Vancouver) visited The Kitchen to bake 200 Hamantaschen for JFS clients ...
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Social Justice Through Counselling
JFS counsellors are trained to use a social justice lens to reduce barriers affecting marginalized people in our ...
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Volunteer Spotlight: Melissa
Once a week, Melissa spends time at The Kitchen assisting with food prep and packaging for the Meal ...
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Volunteer Spotlight: Malcolm
As a UBC undergrad student originally from Kamloops, Malcolm wanted to give back to his new community and ...
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Community Kitchen: Dumplings from Around the World
The Community Kitchen series bring individuals together to learn new skills, and to connect with the community through ...
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City Beet Farm: Veggies for Neighbours
JFS is partnering with City Beet Farm this year! City Beet Farm is a small-scale, multi-site urban farm ...
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Learning from Each Other: Intergenerational Dialogues
JFS' Thriving Seniors held its first Intergenerational Dialogue program, "Learning from Each Other" last month, which brought together ...
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Building Bridges to Inclusion
The path to our amazing partnerships and projects has always been led by our values. We are proud ...
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JFS Innovators 2023: Imagine the Future
We are excited for the 17th annual Innovators Lunch. After three years of being apart, we can't wait for ...
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2022: A Year in Review
Another year has come and gone - what a year of obstacles and accomplishments! For me, it has ...
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Breathing Underwater: A support group for adults living with anxiety
Over the course of 8 sessions, trained counsellors will guide group exercises and discussions to help participants understand ...
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2022 JFS Board Nominees
JFS Board Nominees DONNA CANTOR holds a Masters in Social Work from Yeshiva University and is a registered ...
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Let’s talk Housing Issues, Together
On October 20, we held our JFS Housing event at the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. Presentations from Shelley ...
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Thank You For Making Project Isaiah A Success!
Thanks to our incredible partnerships with local synagogues, schools, and YOU, over $50,000 and 6,500+ lbs of nutritious ...
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JFS Annual General Meeting
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Date: Wednesday, November 23rdTime: 1:00PMLocation: Zoom Please register in advance. Once registered, you will ...
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Make A Meal, Build Community
The Food Security team proudly launched the Community Kitchen program from our very own Kitchen. Naomi Kestenbaum-Evans taught ...
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Belmont Properties Helps JFS Provide Temporary Housing
“He who saves just one life, saves the world entire.” The Talmud JFS had been working with the ...
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Participate in our Parent/Caregiver Survey
A few months ago, a group of parents of children and youth with disabilities got together to speak ...
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September is Hunger Action Month!
It's Hunger Action Month! This is the perfect time to learn more about food insecurity, its impact on ...
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Healthy City for All Award
JFS receives "Healthy City for All" Award. On May 30th, JFS was honoured with the coveted "Healthy City ...
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Marc’s Story
In his clean, quiet home in Nanaimo, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, you would never know that ...
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Bringing Joy and Support to the Holiday Season
If you live on a low-income, access to holiday services and food can be expensive and overwhelming. This ...
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Crossing Borders to Support the Food Bank
Henry Rosenthal has been delivering food to the JFS Food Bank from Point Roberts, USA, throughout the pandemic. ...
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Building a food-secure future together
Proper nutrition plays a central part in learning, yet 1 in 8 households in Canada struggle to access ...
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Rhea’s Story: Courage to Change
It was a year before Rhea* even mentioned the abuse she was experiencing to the counsellors and caseworkers ...
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What You Should Know About JFS
As JFS' Board Chair, Jody Dales shares what makes JFS special, the importance of valuing our people, and ...
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Caring for Our Holocaust Survivors
JFS and Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC) are pleased to announce a new partnership to serve Greater Vancouver's ...
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Preparing for Covid-19
By Mara Shnay Sadly with the Omicron variant, many of us will get Covid-19 over the next two ...
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JFS Covid-19 Safety Plan
JFS is working hard to keep everyone safe and healthy so we can continue to provide services to ...
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Meet Our New Board Members
We are delighted to welcome Eli Joseph, Madison Slobin and Sherri Wise as new board members at JFS. ...
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Homelessness in the Jewish Community
Hear Us, We Are Here is a project to bring awareness and understanding to Jewish homelessness in the ...
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Take Action on Homelessness
What Can I Do? Learn about the causes of homelessness and what it includes eg. living on the ...
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Experiencing Grief and Loss
Crossing the Bridge: Experiencing Grief and Loss in a Pandemic By Lily Shalev, Senior Outreach Therapist at JFS ...
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Addiction Counselling Services at JFS
JFS Clients are now able to see Jewish Addiction Community Services (JACS) counsellors at The Kitchen by appointment. ...
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George’s Story
Before George came to JFS, he was struggling to make ends meet for his growing family. Finding employment ...
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Moishe’s Farm Retreat
Calling all Jewish young adults! Are you a socially conscious foodie & adventurer? Join us in the heart ...
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We Are Moving!
Our JFS office move is underway. We will be moving to two new office spaces over the next two months to ...
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An Outstanding Innovators 2021
Thanks to you, we raised over $270,000 for JFS Innovators 2021! To all of our donors and sponsors who made ...
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New JFS Van Hits the Road
JFS has been a food security advocate for decades and today is a moment we want to etch ...
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Thriving Seniors
Connect. Learn. Thrive. We're excited to announce the launch of a new program called Thriving Seniors. This innovative program ...
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New Food Hub Opens in April 2021
Last night, at our AGM, we shared an exciting announcement. In the spring of 2021, our Food Security ...
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Client Needs During COVID-19
In this JFS Client Update document compiled and written by the JFS Client Advisory Committee (CAC), we endeavor ...
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JFS COVID-19: What We Ask of You
What We Ask of You Wash your hands immediately upon entering the JFS building or location or your ...
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JFS COVID-19: Our Commitment to You
Our Commitment to You: JFS staff are being briefed regularly on measures to reduce the risk of infection ...
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David Discovers the Joy of Music
Thanks to donors, a client on the autism spectrum discovers community through a local drumming circle. David was ...
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A Family for Every Child
Adoptive Families Association of BC (AFABC) has been dedicated to finding families for children since 1977. This organization ...
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Q&A: Karen Malone
INNOVATORS 2020 KEYNOTE SPEAKER KAREN MALONE, FOUNDER & CEO, LITPARK Q: As the Founder and CEO of LitPark, ...
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2018-2019 Annual Report
At JFS, our work is only possible with you. You helped us successfully deliver our programs and services ...
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Jewish Food Link expands to North Shore
Jewish Family Services has expanded our healthy food program to the North Shore! Jewish Food Link provides healthy ...
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Hanukkah Helpers
Make this Hanukkah Memorable for a Family in Need Each donor family is reviewed and matched by our ...
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Making healthy food a priority
Increasing Healthy Options at the Jewish Food Bank Jacob knows how important it is to have healthy food. ...
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Introducing Our New CEO
The Board of Directors of Jewish Family Services (JFS) is delighted to announce the appointment of Tanja Demajo ...
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Farewell Message from Richard Fruchter
Dear Friends, At the end of August, I am retiring from my position as CEO at Jewish Family ...
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Housing Position Makes a Difference
Photo Above: Lina (right), Tenant Community Liaison, and Harriet, (left) tending the garden boxes at Dany Guincher's community ...
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The Power of Community
On May 14, 2019, over 600 people came together at our 15th annual Innovators Lunch to support the ...
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Jewish Food Security Task Force Report
Read the Jewish Food Security Task Force Report We're very pleased to announce the release of a report ...
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Building a New Life
Amy looks forward to starting a new life with her daughter. As a JFS client, she is among ...
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5 Questions with Lane Merrifield
The newest "dragon" to join CBC's hit show Dragons' Den, Lane Merrifield is one of Canada's leading tech ...
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Helping Mariam Find Meaningful Work
Mariam came to Canada two years ago from Armenia. With her education and experience in administration, she was ...
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Meet Lane Merrifield
The newest "dragon" to join CBC's hit show Dragons' Den, Lane Merrifield is one of Canada's leading tech ...
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Lucy’s Story
I am grateful to JFS for so much. I had a major health crisis when I came to ...
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