You do not have to be a vehicle driver to be affected by the rise in gasoline and diesel fuel prices, the needy, who receive food baskets, may feel this also.
The “Hasdei Naomi” Organization may have found a solution: horse and cart instead of a truck…..
Prices of gasoline and diesel fuel prices, which are getting more expensive by the day, strike a hard blow at the giving array of “the Hasdei Naomi” Organization. The five trucks as well as the numerous vehicles under the ownership of the “Hasdei Naomi” Organization, swallow up countless miles daily during the distribution of vegetables, fruit and food packages to the thousands of needy throughout the country, and in collecting food and donations from companies and citizens.
The gasoline and diesel fuel prices increase led to the new thinking of the Organization management regarding the feasibility of the aid array, which could be severely impaired when there is no sufficient budget to meet these higher costs.
As a sign of protest against the government’ s incompetence that could lead to hitting directly the recipients, a number of horses and carts owners joined in to replace the trucks for a few hours in the transportation and handling of the food products to the distribution stations. The volunteers in the emergency storage loaded the food packages on the carts, decorated with the “Hasdei Naomi” mythological poster : “Mom, you promised us chicken for Shabbath!”. The trucks and vehicles were disabled during the same hours to save if only a little fuel costs.
Rabbi Yossef Cohen, the chairman of the “Hasdei Naomi” Organization, adds : “Besides diesel fuel price rise in home heating during the cold winter days, needy families may see that the organizations that provide them with food baskets find it difficult to stand to the task. Such a situation should not happen. We spend tens of thousands of shekels on gasoline and diesel fuel each month, maybe if we move to distribution by horses and carts, in the same way as we drove in my childhood, we might meet this almost impossible task of regular current distribution.”