Kung Pao Kosher Comedy
2011 Beneficiaries

Over the past 18 years, Kung Pao has raised 10’s of 1000’s of dollars and awareness for different organizations. In keeping with the Jewish tradition of tzedakah (charity, in Hebrew – tied in with a sense of duty and social responsibility), each year Kung Pao donates partial proceeds to organizations and causes we believe in. Kung Pao loves seniors! This year we have chosen 2 senior organizations (one for humans; one for pooches) as our beneficiaries.

The Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ L’Chaim Adult Day Health Care Center has been providing medical, rehabilitative, and social services to thousands of elderly and disabled clients, mostly low-income Russian Jews, in San Francisco since 1999. Due to drastic government funding cuts, L’Chaim and all other Adult Day Health Care programs across the state of California will be forced to close on February 29th, leaving our frailest, most vulnerable community members at risk of falls, emergency room visits, premature institutional care, and isolation. Kung Pao Kosher Comedy’s donation to L’Chaim will help Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) continue to provide case management, home care, and socialization activities to its neediest clients, helping to support vital services to keep the elders safe and independent in their homes and community even though L’Chaim will cease to operate as it has for 12 years. Through December 31st, all new or increased donations to JFCS will be matched dollar-for-dollar by JFCS’ Board of Directors. Donations may be made on-line at ssl.charityweb.net/jfcs or by phone at (415) 449-1256. For more information on L’Chaim, visit www.tinyurl.com/JFCS-SrCtr – This recent article in J. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California talks about the impact of budget cuts on seniors and on L’Chaim: www.tinyurl.com/J-JFCS-SrCtr

Muttville Senior Dog Rescue is a Bay Area non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of senior dogs. Muttville’s mission is to change the way the world thinks about and treats older dogs and to create better lives for them through rescue, foster, adoption and hospice. Muttville reaches out to senior and special needs rescue dogs; finds suitable homes for those dogs that are adoptable; and offers end of life care for those that are not. These are not just shelter dogs; every day dogs are moved from loving homes to concrete cages because their guardians have died or moved or simply can’t care for them anymore. Muttville rescues these worthy dogs and finds them new homes. Muttville was started in 2007 by Sherri Franklin, a long-time animal advocate, rescue worker (and nice Jewish girl). In 1995, she began caring for dogs for the SF/SPCA that were considered “unadoptable” because of medical problems, behavior issues, or other challenges. And thus, Muttville was born. For more info: www.muttville.org

Past beneficiaries have included…

2010

• JFCS’ Food Pantry
• The Jewish Home San Francisco’s “Esther Weintraub Comedy Clinic

2009

• The National MS Society, Northern CA chapter
• JFCS’s East Bay Refugee & Immigrant Programs

2008

• Jewish Family & Children’s Services "Food Pantry"
• The 100 Friends Project

2007

• The Jewish Free Clinic
• Jewish Family and Children’s Services “Chicken Soupers”

2006

• The Jewish Home's "Esther Weintraub Comedy Clinic"
• The Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living's "Komedy Club and Library"

2005

• The Jewish Home's "Esther Weintraub Comedy Clinic"
• Clowns Without Borders

2004

• The Bay Area Jewish Coalition for Literacy
• Laughing Stock

2003

• Familial Dysautonomia Hope Foundation
• The LGBT Family Assistance Project at Jewish Family and Children's Services

2002

• Jewish Home Comedy Clinic
• Gay-Straight Alliance Network

2001

• International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission
• Bay Area Jewish Healing Center

2000

• SFJCC's Montefiore Senior Center
• Lesbian & Gay Senior Services Collaborative

1999

• Breast Cancer Action
• The Holocaust Center of Northern California's Tolerance Education Program

1998

• Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases (WORLD) - A social and information network for women with HIV/AIDS
• Bay Area Council for Jewish Rescue and Renewal - Promoting freedom for Jews in the former Soviet Union & reuniting families in the Bay Area

1997

• Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic -A clinic for low income women with cancer
• Shalom Bayit- Jewish Women's Task Force on Domestic Violence

1996

• International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
• Jewish Family & Children's Services AIDS Project

1995

• SF Jewish Film Festival - Program of Jewish humor short films
• Family Link– a hospitality house for visiting families of people with AIDS

1995 - Los Angeles show

• L. A. Jewish AIDS Services
• Aunt Bee's Laundry Service - offering free laundry and house-cleaning services to people with HIV/AIDS.

1994

• Women's Cancer Resource Center
• GESHER: Bridge to Understanding- a joint project of Congregation Sha'ar Zahav & Community United Against Violence

1993

• The late Tamar Kaufman – A Northern California Jewish Bulletin writer battling cancer