BY LISA BOLIVAR
Ruthie Shapiro has left a legacy to the people of Broward -- a tradition that has been adopted by people from all corners of the county.
Shapiro, who died of cancer in 2000, was looking for a way to instill the Jewish value of tzedakah, or charity, by organizing an effort to feed the hungry during a time when many forget those in need.
Through the National Council of Jewish Women's Northwest Broward County chapter, she and other women organized the March for the Hungry that began with children pulling little red wagons door to door, asking neighbors for donations.
Today the annual event is known as the Ruth W. Shapiro March for the Hungry food drive. The drive, in its ninth year, was April 9-16. Participants included members' kids, 35 public and private schools, businesses, Hollywood condominium dwellers and Davie-Cooper City religious institutions.
It set a new record in collecting more than 20,000 pounds of nonperishable foods that will restock food pantries at the Cooperative Feeding Program, the Daily Bread Food Bank and the W.E.C.A.R.E. food bank at the Soref Jewish Community Center in Plantation, as well as pantries at schools, said Jodi Samson, 50, of Coral Springs, this year's event co-chairwoman.
Taking in record amounts of food is especially important this year, Samson said.
''We just have cases that are getting super-complicated. Two years ago, it was the hurricane and now it's people losing their jobs and losing their homes,'' she said. ``There are more and more people out of work, their electricity is turned off and the agencies we normally use to turn the lights back on have had their funding cut. We're at a loss, too. Yes, there is definitely an escalation of need.''
Children in poverty-stricken homes who depend on breakfast and lunch at school are especially at risk, Samson said. She looked around her at the enthusiasm of this year's participants and found some comfort.
''That's the neat thing about it, when you get people who come out of the woodwork and just want to help,'' she said as she watched people swarm West Glades Middle School in Parkland on the final collection day.
They came in cars, they came in fancy SUVs, filling trucks and vans destined for the pantries. A 20-month-old struggled to lift a box of fruit loops as big as he was into a truck. Children with knees buckling carried boxes of canned goods, smiling even under the load.
Gale Goldstein Tucker of the Hallmark of Hollywood condominiums said she and another resident, Michelle Rusin, 61, put boxes in the hall of her high-rise to collect items and hopes to start an annual tradition of giving there that was introduced years ago by a mail carrier.
''I never asked where the food was going, but I missed the giving when he stopped doing that,'' said Tucker, 60.
Her condo, made up of retirees and younger professionals, donated two boxes of food.
Janis Scharf of Davie, a member of Temple Beth Emet in Cooper City, said she got involved in the food drive with her twin daughters because she was concerned about the needs of the community.
''Particularly now with the current economic situation that most families are in and with the snowbirds gone during the summer, there is an extraordinary need to replenish the shelves,'' Scharf said. ``At the moment, the shelves are so bare this won't even last through the summer.''
To make donations or participate in the 2009 March for the Hungry, call Jodi Samson at 954-605-2914.
