XI. Retrieving
Perfectly Good Food: Bal Tashchit and Other Food-Related Programs
A. Rock And Wrap It Up! ($16,000)
We
know that the stories we heard from our parents as we grew up often made an
indelible impression. So it was with Syd Mandelbaum, as he recalled his
parents’ tales of hunger and starvation in the Nazi death camps during the
Shoah. It was those stories that moved Syd from his desk as a scientific
researcher and geneticist to the founding of Rock and Wrap It Up! (RWU), an
international organization devoted to relieving hunger by retrieving leftover
food from various sites, among them musical venues and schools. The collection
process is simple — volunteers receive access to backstage after a rock concert
and pick up the frequently huge collection of leftovers from pre- and
post-performance meals for the artists and their crews. Once properly packaged,
they are delivered to local food pantries and shelters and used to feed hungry
people. It is that simple. Syd’s College Wrap project is just waiting to happen
in colleges across the country. While he has been successful in getting the
attention of many schools, there is much yet left to be done. A visit to the
RWU website will give you all the details. The simplicity of this program
(which annually collects more than 1,500,000 pounds of food) makes it even more
imperative that it be implemented wherever possible. With 6% unemployment, many
sectors of our economy are years away from recovery. Conservative estimates put
the number of Americans in need of daily food support at 40,000,000, including
15,000,000 children. This country produces more than enough food to feed its
citizens—there is no need for people to go to bed hungry. It is just a matter
of getting leftovers from point A to point B and RWU does just that!
[Rock
and Wrap it Up!, 405 Oceanpoint Ave., Cedarhurst, NY 11516, attn: Diane Mandelbaum, 516-295-0670, or
1-877-691-FOOD, fax: 295-0670, mailto:sydmandelbaum@worldnet.att.net, www.rockandwrapitup.org.]
n.b.:
To locate a food retrieval service in your area, contact America’s Second
Harvest, 35 E. Wacker #2000, Chicago, IL 60601, phone: 800-771-2303, fax:
312-263-2303, www.secondharvest.org.
B. Chicken à la Queen ($3,250)
She
sings, she dances, she is a pretty good comedian as well. The fact that she
passed her 92nd birthday some time ago only makes the remarkable Clara Hammer
even more of an inspiration to those who meet her. Her story is a legend that
has been shared with many people throughout this country, especially religious
and day school students who contribute to her work. While visiting her butcher,
Mr. Hacker, many years ago, Clara witnessed him handing over a bag of chicken
bones and skin to a young girl. Commenting to him that the girl must own many
cats, the butcher replied that the bag’s contents were actually for the family
to use to prepare a Shabbat cholent. He went on to explain that the father and
mother were not well and had not worked in a very long time. Though he had
extended credit to them, he could no longer do so. Clara was appalled that
anyone would have to eat such garbage and instructed Mr. Hacker to give the
girl two chickens and a half kilo of chopped meat weekly so that they could
have a proper Shabbat. No one was to know the identity of the donor. From that
very beginning, Clara Hammer’s Chicken Fund has grown.
We
never tire of sitting in her living room, filled with all kinds of chicken
kitsch, enjoying a glass of fresh orange juice and a handful of Israel’s
infamous junk foods, Bamba or Bisli! Clara’s limitless supply of energy only
inspires us to do more. This past February on our HeroIsrael tour, we learned
of the more than 190 families who benefit from her generosity on a weekly or
monthly basis. Since the economic downturn in Israel, there are even more
hungry people, and Clara sees it as her responsibility to alleviate at least
some of this hunger.
We
wish this truly incredible woman 120 years of good health and peace. She has
more than earned it…and many more years of Mitzvahs!
[Clara
Hammer, Mishmar HaGvul 4, Ramat Eshkol, Jerusalem, phone: 02-581-6164.]
C. Small Kitchen — Big Mitzvahs ($4,000)
Visiting
Tova’s Kitchen is a matter of proportion: the kitchen is very small, the
synagogue where Tova Cohen feeds a hot meal to about 20 Elders is very small,
the Jerusalem side street is small, and she herself is well under five feet
tall. But her pots of soup and rice and chicken and vegetables are huge. For
first-timers who visit, it may take a while to get oriented to the contrasts in
size, but one very quickly senses the enormous warmth (not only of the food)
and the huge heart of this Tzadeket this truly Righteous Woman. Go visit on a
Wednesday morning around 8:30 or 9:00. Join her in her good work. Here is where
you will sense the true meaning of holiness.
[Tova
Cohen, Tova’s Kitchen, 26 Yosef Karo St., Jerusalem, 02-582-2879. The meals are
served in the synagogue at #33 Yosef Karo St.]
D. New York City’s Attack On Hunger ($500)
Over
the past year, New York City has not been spared the alarming increase of
hunger and homelessness among its residents. This metropolis, like every other
city in the country, is faced with rising hunger and fewer resources to address
that need. Since 1981, City Harvest has been the model for efficient food
rescue from local restaurants, supermarkets, food manufacturers, and local
farms. They even have a kosher food rescue program that has been in operation
for the past few years. The “City Harvest At a Glance” page on their website is
a simple but highly informative explanation of just how many people are
involved in its tremendous efforts, from donor to recipient.
[City
Harvest, Julia Erickson, Executive Director, 575 8th Avenue, 4th Fl., New York,
NY 10018, phone: 917-351-8700, fax: 351-8720, www.cityharvest.org]
E. Food Rescue In San Francisco — HaMotzi ($600)
Nancy
Sheftel-Gomes, our contact at this synagogue-based feeding program, describes
the hunger problem in San Francisco far better than we can. One of her e-mails
recently shared the following:
Eleven
years and there are still hungry people to feed. You probably have heard on the
news about this mean spirited Proposition N which San Franciscans are voting on
today: Care not Cash. It should be Care and Cash. It threatens to reduce the
General Assistance monthly payment of $341 to $59 for our poorest
citizens. It will create more hungry people.
HaMotzi’s
mission is to feed hungry people. We know the homeless situation is complex and
this is our way of doing something concrete.
Aside
from the HaMotzi program, congregants are also involved in the Chicken Soupers
program. One Sunday each month congregants gather in the synagogue kitchen and
cook 5 days of meals for 50 homebound people living with AIDS and cancer
patients. They deliver the food individually, always stopping to spend time and
visit with each recipient.
We
applaud this synagogue community for its efforts in a program that costs
approximately $13,000 annually, much of it provided for by the synagogue
budget. It is a fine example of a congregation’s intergenerational efforts to
combat hunger.
[HaMotzi,
Congregation Sherith Israel, Nancy Sheftel-Gomes, 2266 California Street, San
Francisco, CA 94115, 415-346-1720, fax: 673-9439, NShef@aol.com]
F. Food Rescue in New England ($360)
It
has been ten years since Rachel’s Table, a local food recovery program
operating in the Springfield, MA, area, was established. In our opinion it is
the paradigm of what the Jewish community can do to end hunger on a local,
grass-roots level. Volunteers from all walks of life dedicate hours weekly
collecting leftover food from synagogues and other Jewish community buildings,
restaurants, bakeries, hotels, supermarkets, schools and other licensed kitchen
facilities. A yearly total approaches more than 300,000 pounds of rescued food!
We recommend a call to Pam Finer, their able Director, to find out just how
they do it. Our donation was once again directed to printing a special pamphlet
on food recovery that is written just for kids. Other Rachel’s Tables projects
are also active in Worcester and New Haven.
[Rachel’s
Table, 1160 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108, Attn: Pamela Finer, 413-733-0084, fax: 737-4348, mailto:pamfiner@jewishspringfield.org,
www.rachelstable.com.]
G. Homeless (But Less Hungry and Cold) in
Seattle ($250)*
Beverly
Graham works on the front lines in Seattle feeding homeless people and
supplying clothing and other needs.
Last year alone they provided 171,183 meals. As is Ziv’s practice to
underwrite specific items, we asked her what she needed within a certain price
range. She said, “A meat slicer!” The check was written the very same day — our
part in making her awesome Mitzvahs happen.
[Beverly
Graham, c/o Operation Sack Lunch, POB 1231, Clinton, WA 98236, 360-341-1309, fax: 360-341-1326,
Pager: 425-710-8199, mailto:beverly@opsacklunch.org, http://www.opsacklunch.org/.]
H. Bagels and More ($1,000)
Once
again, it was a personal experience with hunger that motivated one individual
to step forward and try to alleviate the scourge of this
seemingly-impossible-to-cure epidemic that plagues so many people in our
prosperous and wealthy country. Having experienced hunger as a child, Herman
Berman, a retired Southern California businessman, now commands a group of more
than 100 volunteers in the San Fernando Valley who gather daily to deliver
day-old bread, bagels and pastries to hungry people in the region. The
statistics are impressive. Just a year ago, Herman reported that in one month
the group has distributed more than 84,000 loaves of bread and nearly 55,000
bagels! Beneficiaries include students in approximately 70 schools.
While
a project of the local Encino B’nai B’rith chapter, the Bagel Brigade, staffed
largely by retirees, relies on private funds for most of their expenses. We
know for a fact that one of their greatest problems is reliable transportation
and a new or almost-new van would make their work so much easier.
[Herman
Berman, The Bagel Brigade, 14236 Chandler Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91401, 818-788-4230, fax: 788-0314, hberman662@aol.com.]
I. The Fish Man ($250)*
While
working as a manager on a commercial fishing vessel, one of Tuck Donnelly’s
crew members told him how distressed he was about how much fish they had to
throw back — dead or alive — because of government regulations…good protein
that could feed hungry Americans.
They were allowed to keep only pollock and cod. After many meetings and
long negotiations, Donnelly succeeded in having the government change the
regulations and now his Mitzvah project, SeaShare, has become a supplier of
millions of pounds of fish to food banks, soup kitchens, and shelters around
the country. Commercial vessels and processors have come “on board,” and many
thousands of Americans are eating more healthy food due to SeaShare’s efforts.
Our
donation was used towards printing pamphlets to publicize his good work.
[SeaShare,
600 Ericksen Avenue, Suite 310, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110, attn: Tuck
Donnelly, 206-842-3609, ext. 201, fax: 206-842-5058, mailto:tdonnelly@seashare.org,
www.SeaShare.org.]
J. Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, All Kinds of Produce for
Hungry People ($1,000)
The
Society of Saint Andrew’s (SOSA) website can teach us a great deal about hunger
in our country, and how we can feed everyone if we do not waste our resources
by retrieving all manner of food from every possible source. One of its
programs, The Potato Project, is specifically dedicated to rescuing tons of
fresh produce from our nation’s fields. They have many methods for rescuing the
food, but most impressive to us is their gleaning program. Thousands of individuals go directly to
farmers’ fields and gather the produce that — for whatever reason — the farmer
does not feel is marketable or financially worthwhile to harvest…a great group
activity, by the way.
Here
are their statistics: Last year they provided more than 32,500,000 pounds of
food at a cost of about a penny per serving. Since they were established, they
have delivered a total of more than 376,000,000 pounds of food to the 48
contiguous states and the District of Columbia.
Astonishing:
An intricate system of trailers crosses the country and delivers this bounty
wherever it will make a difference…astonishing in and of itself, but when you
visit the “home office,” you will be stunned by how small the place is, how few
the number of people necessary to make it all happen. A Yasher Koach to Ken
Horne, overseer of the program, whom we refer to as “The Mitzvah Man of Big
Island, Virginia.”
[Society
of St. Andrew/The Potato Project, 3383 Sweet Hollow Rd., Big Island, VA 24526, Attn: Michael Waldmann,
toll-free phone: 800-333-4597 or 804-299-5956, fax: 299-5949, mailto:sosausa@mindspring.com,
www.endhunger.org.]
K. MAZON ($100)
Since
1986, MAZON-A Jewish Response to Hunger, has granted more than $20,000,000 to
food projects around the world. The next time your family celebrates a Simcha,
remember to share the occasion with others by making a donation to Mazon that
represents 3% of the total cost of the food served.
[MAZON,
1990 South Bundy Drive, #260, Los Angeles, CA 90025, Attn H. Eric Schockman, 310-442-0020, fax: 442-0030, mailto:mazonmail@aol.com,
http://www.mazon.org/.]
