Lasova card – application questionnaire

The Lasova card project is intended to guarantee food for severely underprivileged people who have exhausted their ability to earn money, while maintaining their dignity. A Lasova card  looks like a regular credit card and enables the person to buy groceries (except for alcohol and cigarettes) at their neighborhood supermarket like all the regular customers, at a pre-determined fixed monthly sum.

The Lasova card is also a separate and independent service offered by Lasova, intended for donors who want to ensure that their donations are used for their intended purpose – guaranteeing food for underprivileged people.

Lasova card funds are managed in a separate bank account and are not used to fund Lasova’s other activities.

Only severely disadvantaged people  receive Lasova cards. Applicants fill out a detailed questionnaire to ensure that they qualify for the Lasova card. Welfare authorities check the veracity of the answers in the questionnaires.

This is how we prevent giving the card to the “voluntary poor” or to individuals who prefer to receive aid instead of making an effort to earn a living on their own.

The Lasova card has numerous advantages compared to the centers distributing food packages to disadvantaged populations:

*It enables donors to ensure that their entire donation will be used only to pay for food purchases by people who are truly and severely disadvantaged.

*It takes providing food aid to the needy back to its proper scope and modesty.

*It minimizes the access of citizens to food distribution centers, a phenomenon that has greatly increased in recent years.

*It enables assistance to underprivileged populations all over Israel – as opposed to the food distribution centers located only in the main cities.

*It enables the underprivileged person to determine what food products he or she want – as opposed to the fixed packages handed out at the distribution centers.

*It operates discreetly and protects the aid recipient’s dignity as opposed to standing in a public line at the food distribution centers.

*It reduces and saves all the unnecessary and expensive logistical operations involved in distributing food at the distribution centers (donating the products, transporting them from the donor to the warehouse, packing materials, the actual packing, storage, distribution expenses, etc.).

Our goal: Our intention and hope is that the Lasova card will be the main tool for Israeli society in general, and donors in particular, to prevent food scarcity and malnutrition among severely disadvantaged populations, and to guarantee that those who truly need it get the meat and chicken they require for proper nutrition.