Kung Pao Kosher Comedy
2008 Beneficiaries

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. This year's recipients are...

Jewish Family & Children’s Services’ “Food Pantry” was established in 2001 at its San Francisco site. Since then, all four regions that JFCS serves (San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and Palo Alto) have established pantries at each of their sites. More people than ever are asking for help from JFCS because of the slowing economy and increases in food and fuel prices. Their clients include: working people and families, seniors living on fixed incomes, adults with disabilities or illnesses, and individuals and families in temporary crisis. Every effort is made to ensure that the Food Pantry items are of high-quality nutrition. These items are in particularly high demand: canned tuna, soups, beans, tomato products, and fruits; peanut butter; whole grain pasta, high protein bars, toiletries (soap, toothpaste, diapers, toilet paper); laundry detergent; Safeway cards... www.jfcs.org/foodpantry

The 100 Friends Project was founded in 1989 by San Franciscan, Marc Gold. Every year his grassroots development project receives contributions from people in the West, and he takes the money to Third World Countries and looks for the neediest people he can find. He then puts the money to work in the most compassionate, appropriate, culturally compatible, constructive, and practical manner possible. He puts the funds directly into the hands of the needy individual or family, or a small trusted grassroots organization helping them. The first time Marc traveled to India, he met a local woman who was suffering from an ear infection but was unable to afford medical treatment and was suffering. He took her to see a doctor and for $1 he was able to purchase an antibiotic that cured her infection. For an additional $30, he was able to buy a hearing aid that saved her hearing. He was amazed that so little money could go such a long way, but people were dying for lack of it. When he returned home, he sent letters to 100 of his friends and told them about his experience. He decided to return the following year with funds to carry out similar work and asked them to make a contribution towards this trip. Thus, 100 Friends was born and has since carried out 19 humanitarian missions in over 50 countries including India, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Thailand, Kenya, China, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Israel, Mozambique, Turkey, and Mexico. www.100friends.org

Past beneficiaries have included…

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