When someone comes to the Jewish Family Service’s food pantry, the organization’s goal is to find out why they can’t provide for themselves.
Maybe the client had to leave their job to take care of an ailing family member. Maybe their paychecks aren’t stretching as far as they used to. Maybe a medical expense is causing a financial crisis.
Jewish Family Service Dallas, which has been serving North Texas for over 75 years, opened its new facility in Addison to solve those root problems. With a full medical clinic, behavioral health center, food pantry and financial coaching now housed under one roof, CEO Cathy Barker hopes to set people on the track to be healthier as a whole in just one visit.
“Most of our clients’ issues, whether they’re low-income or not, don’t happen in a vacuum,” Barker said in an interview.
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The new facility in Addison opened March 2 and aims to serve North Dallas and Collin County residents especially.
“JFS can now serve even more people and provide comprehensive health services that promote lifelong, physical, emotional, nutritional and financial well-being,” Julie Gothard, chair of the Jewish Family Service Dallas’ board, said during a ceremonial ribbon cutting event Thursday.
Guests tour the Parkland Health Center inside the Jewish Family Service of Dallas facility, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Addison.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Growing need for holistic care
Jewish Family Service Dallas, commonly shortened to JFS, has provided food and mental health services for decades. Founded in 1950, it originally served the Jewish community following the horrific toll of the Holocaust. It’s grown over the years to serve anybody in need.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, clients said they needed more medical care, Barker said in an interview. JFS opened a medical center in North Dallas near Richardson and has applied to be recognized as a Federally Qualified Health Center, a type of medical clinic that services low-income and uninsured people.
The goal of a FQHC, Barker explained, is to address chronic illnesses especially, such as diabetes, heart problems and obesity.
The North Dallas medical center will remain open, and the Addison facility now hosts a second medical clinic which offers primary care for all ages, as well as maternal health care. After certain Affordable Care Act tax credits expired at the end of last year, Barker said JFS is seeing more and more patients who are uninsured.
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The medical clinic will work closely with the food pantry to identify specific needs, nutritional or otherwise. The pantry itself is “client choice,” equipped with shopping carts and shelves of goods.
“Just like they are going to a grocery store,” said Eli Cohn-Wein, the pantry’s manager.
Individual and group financial coaching is available to clients to work through financial trouble, and JFS provides temporary monetary relief for expenses like medical bills and rent as well.
JFS serves around 22,000 clients a year, Barker said, with about half of that number being food pantry visitors. With the new facility, which was backed by a $40 million campaign, the JFS hopes to reach more than 50,000 total clients a year by 2028.
Guests tour a sensory gym in the Jewish Family Service of Dallas facility, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Addison.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Care for the whole family
A large wing of the new location is entirely dedicated to behavioral health care, from therapy to community spaces.
On their behavioral health clinician staff, JFS has a diagnostician, speech therapist and cognitive behavioral therapists. There is counseling available for families and individuals, and support groups for a number of people, from caregivers to cancer patients. A senior center to address the needs of aging adults.
For adults with mental illnesses, the new facility has a clubhouse with activities, a kitchen and programming to build community.
For children, there are a variety of playrooms in the behavioral health wing, including a sensory gym equipped with adjustable lights, a ball pit and a rock climbing wall.
Rabbi Mordechai Harris places a mezuzah at the entrance to the new Jewish Family Service of Dallas facility, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Addison.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Rooted in faith, open for all
The center serves anybody, not just Jewish clients. There are a few nods to Jewish heritage in its work however, including a kosher section of the food pantry and a kosher grocery home delivery service.
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Rabbi Mordechai Harris, chief impact officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, affixed a mezuzah – a scroll of parchment featuring written prayers in a decorative casing – to the door of the facility during the ceremony Thursday. Traditionally, a mezuzah is hung outside of the home or a personal living space.
In remarks he made to a crowd of over 200 who attended opening ceremony, Harris said the mezuzah is a reminder that taking care of others is not a kindness, but an obligation and a sacred mission.
“Every human being has that divine image,” he said. “And is infinitely valuable.”