Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty

Founded in 1972 after studies revealed roughly 300,000 impoverished Jews living in New York City, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) was formed with the support of 36 national and grassroots Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Congress and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York (now UJA-Federation of New York). Today it is America’s largest Jewish nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty, serving hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers each year regardless of age, sex, religion, race, or ethnicity.

Met Council operates as the umbrella organization for a network of local Jewish Community Councils across New York City’s five boroughs, and runs the country’s largest kosher food pantry system alongside emergency food cards, home-delivered meals, and SNAP enrollment assistance. Its other program areas include 100% affordable housing at numerous locations, an award-winning family violence program, comprehensive Holocaust survivor assistance, senior services, career services, and crisis intervention.

With a staff of social workers increasingly paired with AI tools to speed benefits access and reduce bureaucracy, Met Council positions itself as the voice of the Jewish poor and the first line of defense for the community’s neediest members, while also extending many of its programs and food distributions to non-Jewish New Yorkers and, during holidays such as Passover, to families across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida.