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.

After almost twenty years of searching for the most amazing good people who are working to better our world you get a sixth sense when you find one that you just know will soar given the right nurturing and attention.

That was the case when we met Gary Oppenheimer, founder of AmpleHarvest.org. Gary’s efforts to end hunger in this country starts with registering all of the country’s food pantries and soup kitchens in his online database. To date, more than 4700 (a third) such agencies have signed on as the numbers change daily.

In just a few years AmpleHarvest.org has gained national attention, despite its incredibly low operating costs and minimal staff. So, it was no surprise to us when Gary sent us an email yesterday with the above photo attached.

We hope Gary enjoys his White House visit and thank him for proving us right!

For many of us, nothing in the news has been more disturbing than the scandal coming out of Penn State. Our friend, Rabbi Adam Feldman of the Princeton (NJ)Jewish Center, spoke of that tragedy a few weeks ago during his Shabbat sermon. Rabbi Feldman reminded his congregation of "how people in authority need to be responsible for their actions especially when they have the lives of young people in their hands."

Sitting in the pews that morning was Gil Gordon, a congregant who accompanied Rabbi Feldman and others on an Israel trip a few years ago. For that trip we arranged a meeting with Yitz Feigenbaum who co-runs Beit Hayeled, the group home that provides safe haven and love for kids removed from abusive homes by the court system. The Princeton community has interacted with Beit Hayeled on other occasions but Gil felt that one very powerful antidote to the tragedy of Penn State would be to tell the entire congregation about Beit Hayeled’s beautiful work with abused kids and request donations for Hanukkah gifts for the kids.

This morning we heard from Rabbi Feldman who shared this story as well as the good news that his congregants had contributed more than $3500 to the effort. As he wrote, "With Chanukah approaching, we have an excellent opportunity to make life a bit brighter for these fragile children whose lives are being put back in order at Bet HaYeled."

We could not agree more! Yasher koach to everyone at Princeton Jewish Center. The Good People Fund is pleased to act as the shaliach in this very special tzedakah mission.

Another morning, another phone call…

The military advocate who called this morning was at first hesitant as she shared her story. Perhaps she doubted that we would be able to help, despite a mutual contact who urged her to call…The story she shared was of a retired decorated soldier who sustained serious injuries in Iraq when a grenade bounced off his tank and fell into the turret, killing one soldier and wounding him and two others. After extensive treatment for his injuries which included traumatic brain injury and PTSD, our soldier opted to leave the military and embark upon a civilian life. By all accounts, things were reasonably stable, despite the long-standing effects of his injuries…until now. Recently his personal life began to fall apart (not an unusual result of such serious war injuries) and our contact reported that this retired soldier had no heat in his home. With an outstanding balance owed the fuel company and limited funds it looked as if he would spend the snowy Western winter without heat. When we called the fuel company they promised that if the new delivery was paid for, they would deliver today to insure a warm Thanksgiving holiday for the family. Thanks to our generous donors the Good People Fund was able to cover the cost of a new tank of propane which should provide four months of heat for this dedicated veteran.