Atlanta’s Erin Steiglitz began Bagel Rescue only a few years ago, but in that short time she and her dedicated crew of more than 100 volunteers have managed to rescue about 15,000 bagels weekly. With more than 36 bagel shops donating, dozens of social service agencies benefit from the daily drop-offs while at the same time, ending waste and supporting hunger relief.
Hunger & Food Rescue
JLM Food Rescuers
40% of edible food, around 2.5 million tons in Israel alone, is discarded unnecessarily along every step of the food supply chain. At the same time, food insecurity, or the ability for people to provide sufficient healthy food for themselves or their family, continues to be a problem. Daniella Seltzer and Itay Peled have come together to start the JLM Food Rescuers in the Givat Shaul produce market in Jerusalem. This creative social business builds community in the city, while at the same time rescues tons of beautiful produce which is redistributed to hungry people, and also used for delicious recipes for the program’s catering business.
Our matching funds are directed to expenses incurred at the produce market where the program operates.
Heart 2 Hart Detroit
Every sandwich Larry Oleinick and his volunteers offer homeless and destitute people who call the area around Detroit’s Hart Plaza “home” comes with caring and friendly conversation. While the sandwich is important, “The greatest gift we offer those we assist is reassurance that they are not alone. With the 3 C’s—Conversation, Compassion and Consistency – we build relationships.” Many lives have been transformed by a connection that comes from the heart. Our funds are directed to administrative expenses and the purchase of basic necessities.
Necha Malka
In Israel, Shira Gilor, a resident of Hashmonaim, thought she knew her neighbors well until the day she was approached by a local mother. The woman confided that she did not have enough food for her children. Quietly, Shira delivered a package to the family, an event which became a personal turning point, as she pondered the food waste she witnessed around her.
Shira knew that this woman’s situation was not an exception, and so began her grassroots, neighborhood operation to secure food and discreetly feed her hungry neighbors. Necha Malka (named for the mother of a generous community member who wanted to help Shira) serves 24 families vetted by local social workers.
Volunteers facilitate the work and supermarket scrip (which we help underwrite) makes possible the purchase of any food that is not donated.
Pesia’s Kitchen
Back in the 1920’s, Safta (Grandmother) Pesia was a legend in her hometown of Volozhyn, Poland. Home to a famous yeshiva, the village had more than its fair share of hungry people, and nothing gave Pesia greater pleasure than providing nourishing food to those who needed it.
Many decades later, two grandchildren of Pesia, cousins Gideon Ben Ami and Pnina Raphael, are doing the exact same thing in Tel Aviv and beyond (and are even assisted by some of Pesia’s great-grandchildren). As Gideon often remarks, “It is a human right to have access to healthy food.” To help make that possible, Pesia’s Kitchen feeds nearly a thousand people daily. Since 2012, nearly 2000 tons of perfectly good food (including fresh produce) rescued from local sources has reached Holocaust survivors, refugees, survivors of domestic violence, homeless shelters — anyone who is hungry.
Our funds are used to underwrite administrative expenses.
Zehava and Karyn—Feeding the Neighbors
Karyn Gellman resides in Baka, one of Jerusalem’s most affluent neighborhoods. When Karyn and her friend Zehava Taub (who has since moved) learned from the nearby school that there were neighbors who struggled to put food on the table, they wanted to help.
The two women approached other families who agreed to volunteer as well as provide food and additional basic items on a monthly basis, and the program was born. Today, many families receive this simple but important boost, which is enhanced at holiday time with supermarket scrip we have purchased on their behalf.
