The self defense program is very close to my heart, especially as Adina learns to ride the city buses going and coming from school. Being aware of what’s going on around you and feeling confident as you move around is something many kids take for granted. Our teens need to learn how to interpret the world and how to handle the unexpected – that’s what we’re aiming for in our self defense courses.

The writer of this short note is Miriam Avraham, co-founder of Shutaf which provides inclusion programming for both special needs and typical kids in Jerusalem. Miriam was writing to us after we let her know that we had received a generous grant for Shutaf’s self-defense project from the Lillian Fund out of the West Hartford Federation. This grant will cover the cost of self-defense sessions for the girls’ program while other funds will underwrite the boy’s sessions.

Why the need? In Israel, as in other countries, violence in school is on the rise. A significant number of kids do not feel safe while attending school and this is not limited to cases of bullying. Studies show that women with disabilities report twice the number of incidents of abuse than non-disabled women. How great that this grant (and additional funds) will empower the Shutaf kids, give them more self-confidence, make them aware of the dangers around them, learn to use physical and verbal signs to ward off impending danger and finally, teach them simple self-defense methods in the event of possible attack.

The Good People Fund is excited about making this connection and to be able to support this meaningful program.

We at HAMA received your incredible box of leashes and toys, and we have already put them to use. They are indeed a wonderful therapeutic contribution to HAMA’s animals and people. It has taken some time to get this letter to you, because I was waiting for these pictures, so you could see your leashes and toys "at work"…If you look carefully you will see how much all our therapy dogs and kids enjoyed them.

Avshalom

As you can see from this letter, there is no end to the creativity kids come up with when they are planning their Bar/Bat Mitzvah projects.

The Good People Fund works with many young people and one young woman who we recently spoke with loved animals. When we shared the meaningful work of Avshalom Beni and HAMA (Humans and Animals in Mutual Assistance-Israel) she knew immediately that this was a program that she wanted to help.

HAMA provides animal-assisted therapy to people with many different types of problems. The "co-therapists" are actually dogs and even some cats, many of whom have experienced abuse themselves.

Looks like this "therapist" is quite satisfied with the new toys.

Naomi,

Jack Hairston

This short email just arrived from Jack the Bikeman (Jack Hairston) down in West Palm Beach, Florida. When we realized that the donation the Good People Fund promised had not yet been mailed, we wanted to be sure he knew it was on its way. This is Jack’s busy season as he gives away hundreds of newly refurbished bikes to the neighborhood’s migrant kids. All of the repairs have been completed by volunteers and also local youth who are learning a new skill.

Imagine 800 excited kids on their new bikes!

Rick Nahmias loved walking Scout, his "senior" Labrador retriever, through his Los Angeles neighborhood. He had been doing it for years, but now that Scout was beginning to show his age, the walks were a whole lot slower…and with that slower pace there was more of an opportunity to take in the scenery. It was on one of those walks that Rick suddenly noticed not only the abundance of fruit trees that dotted his neighbors’ yards, but also the vast amount of fruit that had dropped to the ground. In Southern California almost everyone has citrus trees -oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, lemons and more.

With such a lush picture in front of him, Rick’s thoughts turned to this enormous quantity of healthy food and how much of it goes to waste since so many homeowners either cannot use it all themselves, or cannot harvest it on their own. Wouldn’t that fresh fruit be a welcome addition to the other items distributed by local pantries and food banks? Wouldn’t hungry people enjoy and benefit from the healthy produce?

Rick’s epiphany led him to start Food Forward, a young organization that matches volunteers with private property owners who invite the group to come and harvest the fruit. Food Forward’s website provides a list of upcoming pickings and complete instructions on how to sign up to help.

Since beginning this work in 2009, Food Forward has gleaned more than 640,000 pounds of juicy fruit (and even tomatoes, lettuce and other healthy food from time to time) which is distributed to more than 25 local agencies. In the process, volunteers are providing not only sustenance but also "coming together as a community to learn about urban hunger, food waste and food justice."

As we sat at lunch with Rick last week during our LA visit, we were struck by many things – Rick is clearly thoughtful, dedicated to this work, a humanist and quite skilled as a young non-profit leader (he is actually a professional photographer by training.) His plans for Food Forward are smart and deliberate and he often remarked that he wants to build this organization slowly and thoughtfully so that it will both endure and be effective. With his young team of creative volunteers and (mostly) part-time staff we have no doubt that this is a program that will grow and flourish in the not-so-distant future.(And perhaps be replicated in other areas with similar climate and abundance?)

The Good People Fund’s grant will allow Food Forward to do just that and we could not be happier. Thank you, Scout!

Hi, Naomi.

Linda

We just love to connect our good people with eager and mitzvah-directed religious school students and that is what just happened between Linda Smith, founder of Reading Village and the students at Beth El in Pittsburgh. The students had been discussing their tzedakah allocation and they loved the work that Reading Village does promoting literacy among kids in Guatemala. After voting was in, three programs were selected; Reading Village being one of the kids’ choices. Through the wonders of technology, with only a few clicks the kids, sitting in their classroom, connected with Linda out in snowy Colorado.

Great decision, for sure!

No matter how long I have known about their work and shared their story with our readers, nothing quite prepared me for the time I spent this past week with the Bagel Brigade volunteers in Los Angeles. Started by the late Herman Berman, Brigade volunteers scour local supermarkets and bakeries each day collecting day old breads and pastries which are in turn quickly retrieved by dozens of local social service agencies and schools and distributed to hungry people throughout the area.

My first morning in LA found us at the Van Nuys COSTCO parking lot at 7am. (To say that only the birds would be in the lot that early would not be an understatement…they were there, too.) Within fifteen minutes three volunteers drove up, popped their trunks and quickly filled cart after cart with bags of bagels, croissants, pastries, artisan breads…even a sheet cake decorated with roses and waiting for a birthday message. No sooner did those volunteers (retirees and students) pull away than three more vehicles appeared, each from a separate agency, to retrieve the food. As we spoke to the agency representatives we quickly learned that the Brigade’s work was critical to their own and without this product they would have a difficult time providing food for their clients.

Knowing that this scenario is played out seven days a week and that there are more than 1.7 million hungry people in LA with 6.5 million being "hunger insecure", only reinforces the importance of this small and efficient program run entirely by volunteers.

We hope that the Good People Fund’s matching grant will bring them even more funds to continue their work.