Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Marble Hill (KRMH) Food & Hunger Project, Inc.
For many years, this project collected non-perishable items at the Meeting House, distributing them from the Church of the Mediator. The Society welcomed food donations Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and on Sundays from 12:30 to 1:00 pm.
Note that these in-person activities are on HOLD during the COVID-19 pandemic precautions. See Food Pantry Donations for an alternative for food donations.
With the current economic situation, your contributions are needed more urgently than ever. The project is still distributing assistance to some who are in need, in different forms.
Checks can be sent payable to KRMH Food & Hunger Project, Inc., PO Box 251, Riverdale Station, Bronx, New York 10471. For more information, please contact Dr. Frances Segan at 718 796-7166 or Kay Dundorf at 718 548-4445.
More Ways to Help: click here
More Ways Individuals and Organizations Can Help the Food and Hunger Project
- Volunteers are needed to help collect, pack and redistribute bagged food.
- Pack 100 bags one day a month at the Riverdale Y.
- Help create a new brochure and update the computer mailing lists.
- Contribute food, cash or in-kind support by providing a site to hold a fundraising concert or help in holiday gift bag preparation.
- Help with additional fundraising activities.
- Sponsor a food drive in your building.
- We need participation of more institutions and expanded representation on the Advisory Board.
More About KMRH: click here
KRMH Today
Dr. Frances Segan of Riverdale Temple is currently the President of KRMH and Society Board Member. Kay Dundorf is the treasurer. Current participating organizations include St. Margaret‘s Church, Riverdale Temple, Christ Church Riverdale, Riverdale Presbyterian Church, Congregation Shareei Shalom, The Mediator, Riverdale AARP, RKSD Clergy Conference and Riverdale Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture. The Society urges congregants to bring food when they come for meetings. The organization is staffed entirely by volunteers and relies totally on food and cash contributions.
KRMH provides the following services:
- Provides supplementary, kosher grocery packages for the most homebound elderly through the Riverdale Y’s Friday hot meal program.
- Distributes food supplies to individuals and community agencies through Church of the Mediator, which houses the Pantry.
- Gives holiday gift packages to children, needy families, recent immigrants and the homeless, and brings special cheer to homebound seniors, as well as women, men and children in shelters.
- KRMH recognizes special needs: upon request the Project provides low-sodium, low cholesterol, low sugar and kosher packages of food.
Willie Furman and Dr. Mathilda Furman
Dr. Mathilda Furman, a longtime member of the Society, affectionately known as “Mattie”, founded the Kingsbridge Riverdale Marble Hill Food & Hunger Project, Inc. (KRMH) in February, 1980. The impetus for the hunger project came from hearing a platform on hunger at the Riverdale Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture. The talk also made her think of an 8-year old boy diagnosed with malnutrition that week at Montefiore Hospital, where Dr. Furman worked.
The project began in 1980 after research revealed a surprising number of hungry people in our own and neighboring communities. Although Riverdale was seen as “affluent”, the project found many who desperately needed help at one time or another. Soon thereafter, she launched her program, and enlisted the support of rabbis, priests or anybody who would listen. This became an interfaith not-for-profit organization dedicated to alleviating the problem of hunger right here in our communities.
Even after she was confined to a wheelchair in 1993, Dr. Furman insisted that volunteers gather at her apartment on West 240th Street in Riverdale to package food for the holidays so she could supervise and be certain that such special requirements as food for diabetics, young children and those who kept kosher would be fulfilled. Then-Society members Helen Auerbach, Annie Elias, Marianne Cohen, Yvonne Dolly and Toby Kirsh served selflessly as volunteers for many years.
A biochemist, Dr. Furman was of Turkish and Sephardic background and was educated in Istanbul, Paris and New York, and practiced at Albert Einstein Medical Center. In 2000 she received a proclamation from the New York State Legislature, as well as a Certificate of Merit from the Bronx Borough President for her dedicated work.
Dr. Furman passed away at 84 on December 3, 2000, at Sound Shore Hospital in New Rochelle after a long illness. Former Riverdale Temple Rabbi Stephen D. Franklin officiated at the funeral service on December 6, and our former Leader Curt Collier participated. Interment followed at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne. She left behind her son, Roger.