JERUSALEM (JTA) — Some 20,000 elderly, many who forgo medicine or food in order to stay warm in the winter, are receiving a warm blanket and a grant to pay heating costs from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

The organization’s “Operation Winter Warmth” kicked off Wednesday; the $25 million in grants and blankets will be distributed by hundreds of volunteers and social workers throughout Israel. The project is in its eighth year.

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein,  founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, called on the Israeli government, in tandem with non-profit organizations and local businesses, to do more to help the elderly, whose national insurance grants are not large enough to afford both heat and food.

“This is a real moral stain on society in Israel,” Eckstein told JTA. “It is something that should not be.

Eckstein called it “outrageous” that many of “the builders of this country,” including elderly Holocaust survivors, should be living in economic crisis.

A survey commissioned by the IFCJ found that 25 percent of Israeli elderly sacrifice heating their homes due to economic difficulties, and that one in seven sacrifice the purchase of food and one in ten don’t buy medication due to financial difficulties.

One fifth of the elderly surveyed also reported feeling lonely on a regular basis.

Eckstein said that both the Israeli government and Jewish organizations have cut funding to the elderly in recent years. Some 99 percent of the donors to IFCJ are Christian, according to Eckstein. “We all have to do more,” he asserted.