Yehoshua Zvi Hershkowitz, who more than 40 years ago was so concerned that his indigent neighbors would go hungry for the Sabbath that he founded a kosher meals-on-wheels program, which has been imitated by Jewish communities around the world, died on Monday in Brooklyn. He was 92.

Leon Goldenberg, a close friend, confirmed the death.

Made aware that a neighbor was struggling to put food on the table, and reasoning that there must be others like him, Mr. Hershkowitz, a postal clerk, founded Tomche Shabbos (the name means “supporters of the Sabbath”) out of the kitchen of his home in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in 1975.

He and friends began gathering the ingredients of a traditional Sabbath meal and dropping off packages of food by station wagon at the homes of those they heard were wanting. On Saturdays, they would make appeals for food and contributions at synagogues in the area.

From this improvised start, Mr. Hershkowitz built an organization that every week distributes meals to 600 families in the Borough Park area, and also provides meals on Jewish holidays. The concept and the name were rapidly imitated. Today there are unaffiliated Tomche Shabbos organizations (the first word is often spelled Tomchei) that distribute meals to the needy in Los Angeles, Toronto, Washington, Phoenix, Miami, Antwerp, London and other world cities, as well as dozens in Israel.