Jewish Home Lifecare Celebrates Earth Day

As part of its mission to foster a healthy and safe environment, Jewish Home Lifecare celebrated Earth Day at all three divisions in Manhattan, the Bronx and Sarah Neuman Center in Westchester.

Hear Aline Marx, Jewish Home Lifecare’s Environmental Coordinator on WCBS Radio
As part of this year’s Earth Day, on April 21st, from 3 to 5 p.m. Jewish Home Lifecare worked at all three divisions with staff, residents and family members to plant vegetable and flower seeds and to collect and recycle discarded cell phones, which contain hazardous chemicals and should not be thrown in the trash.  Phones that are still usable will be reprogrammed for 911 use and donated to those in need.

Staff are encouraged to car pool or take the bus, reuse cloth bags for shopping, use a mug or thermos instead of disposable cups, recycle, turn off lights when not in use, unplug all electronics after use, conserve water and fix leaky faucets.

Activities (at all three divisions):

Planting of vegetable and flower seeds by residents and staff
Holding Plant raffles
Cell Phone Drive with the Good Deed Foundation 

Donations:

The Plant Shed on 96th Street in Manhattan donated the planters and soil for all three divisions
Friends and Relatives in the Bronx will be donating seeds

Volunteers: NY Cares sent volunteers to the Manhattan Division. The High School for Environmental Studies also sent students to volunteer in Manhattan.

In 2008, Jewish Home Lifecare’s contributions to the environmental movement included the following savings:
 
Bottled Water

Sarah Neuman Center saved 4,848 bottles
Bronx Division saved 20,688 bottles
Manhattan saved approximately 17,280 bottles, 
Total JHL saved 42,816

Paper

Sarah Neuman saved 294 reams (147,000 sheets)
Manhattan saved 375 reams (187,500 sheets)
Bronx saved 3,231reams (1,615,500 sheets)
JHL total saving:  3,900 reams (1,950,000 sheets)

Gasoline

Jewish Home Lifecare saved 9,200 gallons

And in a centuries old building at our largest division in the Bronx, an 816 bed nursing home and rehabilitation center with a housing complex on the five-acre campus, we have incorporated a Cogen system, which is able to capture wasted heat from a typical generator and reuse it to make domestic hot water.