Kung Pao Kosher Comedy
2012 Beneficiaries

Over the past 19 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. (See Past Kung Pao beneficiaries)

This year we have chosen two local direct services organizations to support:

The Brown Twins/Jewish Family & Children’s Services (JFCS) Emergency Assistance Fund.

JFCS is committed to ensuring that the needs of octogenarian twins, Marian and Vivian Brown, San Francisco's beloved icons who are always seen in public dressed identically, as well as the needs of other frail seniors in similarly dire circumstances, are fully met. Thanks to JFCS' commitment, along with the generosity of our caring community, after a fall and a battle with Alzheimers, Vivian Brown is now comfortably settled in a senior residence center and receiving the care that she needs. But such care is costly, and making sure that Vivian and Marian and other seniors can continue receiving needed services requires ongoing support. JFCS is most grateful to its friends throughout the community, Jewish and non-Jewish, young and old, who are stepping forward to help the Browns and other frail seniors. This past year has proven economically challenging for many people in The Bay Area, which like other parts of the country, has been hit hard with job losses during this current economic downturn. More and more individuals and families are struggling to pay their rent and mortgages and to put food on their tables. JFCS has always been there to help the community during times of crisis--economic or otherwise, offering short-term loans and grants to Jewish residents of the Bay Area to help them meet basic living expenses, such as food, housing, medical care, and other vital necessities. As part of a comprehensive case-management plan, JFCS works with individuals and families to create budgets and plans that help them to regain self-sufficiency and also offer free workshops and classes as part of the Bay Area-wide Jewish Emergency Assistance Network. If you or anyone you know needs help, contact JFCS. If you want to help the Brown Twins and others, please go to www.jfcs.org/give/help-marian-and-vivian-brown-and-others-them

Bay Area Women’s & Children’s Center (BAWCC) Drop-in Services & Food Pantry.

BAWCC, located in the heart of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, is a unique presence, focusing entirely on the needs and issues of low-income families, children, and women in this multi-ethnic, inner-city neighborhood since 1981. BAWCC offers a variety of direct services that address immediate needs as well as long-term stability and also leads advocacy and planning work that has resulted in significant public policies and neighborhood institutions that have tangibly improved the daily lives of thousands of families, children, and women. BAWCC’s “Drop-In Services Program” works with more than 400 families, children and women every month. Through its weekly Food Pantry Program, BAWCC works with low-income families and women who need assistance with meeting their food and nutritional needs. Other services include Free Clothes Closet (includes smaller household items such as bedding, kitchen items, books, and furniture); Job Interview Clothing; and Special Occasion and Maternity Clothing. BAWCC’s long-term projects have resulted in buildings and five new playgrounds, a new recreation center with an adjacent children’s playground, and a new 400-student public elementary school with an on-site family center run by BAWCC including a state-of-the-art dental clinic, computer center, counseling rooms, rooftop learning garden, beautiful library, and a welcoming family room where parents, guardians and family members can gather for classes or just for times to share with other parents. www.bawcc.org

Past beneficiaries have included…

2011

• The Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ L’Chaim Adult Day Health Care Center
• Muttville Senior Dog Rescue

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