(Click HERE for photos) Pesach may be described as “zeman cherusanu,” but for families whose children were hospitalized or acutely ill at home during the chag, the holiday might have seemed more like bondage without Chai Lifeline’s delicious meals and accoutrements. Families throughout New York City and Long Island received full complements of Pesach meals from the children’s health support organization that were packaged with compassion, dedication, and love.

More than 400 meals were delivered to seriously ill children and their families at home and in hospital rooms at New York University Langone Medical Center; Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Mount Sinai Medical Center; Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital; Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Milstein Hospital; Weill Cornell Medical Center; Schneider Children’s Hospital; and Montefiore Medical Center.

Meals delivered to hospital rooms included all of the Pesach fixings, from a fully equipped seder plate, matzo, and grape juice, to matzo covers, afikomen bags, delicious Yom Tov meichels, and intricate paper goods.

“Our Pesach meals included everything that a family would need for their table, and our assistance continued throughout Pesach, with families receiving Yom Tov packages before the first and second days, and chol hamoed meals each day,” explained Mr. Hersh Moskovitz, support service coordinator, Chai Lifeline.  “The grateful phone calls from the families say it all: Chai Lifeline brought Pesach to the hospital.”

“Chai Lifeline is here for its families 24/7,” explained Rabbi Simcha Scholar, executive vice president, Chai Lifeline.  “When Pesach and medical crises coincide, families need help simultaneously coping with the anxiety surrounding the medical condition and managing the logistics of the demanding Yom Tov.  Our meal support program, which extends critical help to our families year-round, ensured that seriously ill patients and their families had the help they needed to celebrate Pesach while focusing on their child’s health.”

More than six volunteers helped Chai Lifeline package and deliver the meals, making it possible for the organization to reach all those in need of its assistance.  “Helping families who are struggling to care for a seriously ill child is an enormous chesed,” explained Mr. Moishe Goldberger, who along with his wife, Raizy, a case manager at Chai Lifeline, provided the facilities for the meal packaging and assisted in the project.  The Goldbergers are well known to Chai Lifeline families throughout Brooklyn for their extraordinary compassion and dedication to the organization, its goals, and programs.

Chai Lifeline’s meal support program has delivered 12,181 meals to homes and hospital rooms throughout New York in the past year.