Residents Helping Residents is a grassroots organization that started a few years ago with the aim of making food accessible to anyone in need. All of the people involved are volunteers from the cities which we serve. Residents Helping Residents started out as a stand on the street that handed out sandwiches to anyone who was hungry. We soon recognized that sandwiches weren't enough, and that people were truly struggling and hungry, so we turned the stand into a food donation area where people could both donate and pick up food that was donated. Since then, the organization's activity expanded and we now provide food baskets on a weekly basis. 

Our overarching goal of Residents Helping Residents (Toshavim Lemaan Toshavim) is to provide security to vulnerable populations (including holocaust survivors, lone senior citizens, single mothers, people living in poverty, lone soldiers, and more) and to help provide support to those who have fallen into difficult economic circumstances as they work to get back on their feet.

The primary activity of Residents Helping Residents is collecting donations of food from residents, schools, and businesses (grocery stores, bakeries, vegetable stands, and so forth) and handing them out to people in need once a week. For many people who seek out our assistance, this is the only fresh fruit that they receive and many times people donate amenities that they would otherwise not be able to afford. 

An important trait that distinguishes Residents Helping Residents from other organizations that hand out food is that the food baskets that we make are not standardized. We cater each basket to the needs/requests of the people using our assistance. One the one hand, this requires much more manpower and volunteers, but it also maximizes out food costs. By giving people that exact food baskets they ask for, none of the food goes to waste.