Last August we reported that the Good People Fund made a grant to cover the cost of fresh fruit to Gabriel Project Mumbai, a program started by Jacob Sztokman and dedicated to fighting hunger, child labor, malnutrition and illiteracy for the children living in the Mumbai slums. Jacob wrote this morning and shared the following story:

I was sitting with the women from the kitchen and asked them how the fruit program is doing. They told me that they love it because the kids are happy to receive fruit. Fruit, as opposed to their meals, make children happy, literally happy. I don’t know, I understood fruit being an important part of a child’s nutrition but I didn’t think about the fact that 1000 children receive a sense of happiness from receiving fruit. It’s really nice.

Indeed it is nice, but even nicer was the rest of Jacob’s note which shared that the women in the kitchen (which the Good People Fund helped underwrite) who prepare the kids’ lunches in a micro-enterprise arrangement are about to receive cooking lessons from a nearby famous cooking school (including learning how to bake–something no one does since they have no stoves!) and after completing those lessons plan to prepare box lunches for workers in offices outside the slums.

Talk about “giving a man/woman a fishing pole and teaching him/her how to fish”…we could not be happier about how our donations were used in both cases!

While reading my usual tzedakah blogs this morning I noted with some pleasure that Harold Grinspoon, the generous benefactor of so many innovative Jewish education programs like PJ Library, has just launched a tzedakah box project. 250,000 colorful tzedakah boxes have been sent to those very children who have been recipients of PJ Library books.

What a great lesson Mr. Grinspoon is teaching with this creative idea; what better way to spread the idea of generosity and giving to our kids? Hanukkah is certainly a time of giving and in that spirit we offer some creative ways you and your families could fill any tzedakah box:

• $54.00 will let Ruthie Sobel Luttenberg of Birthday Angels make a birthday party for an Israeli child who would otherwise do without.
• $36 will help the Jack and Eleanor Borden Kosher Meal Fund provide kosher meals for elderly Jews throughout the U.S.
• $18 will help Fran Held buy diapers for her Diaper Bank at the Mitzvah Circle Foundation.
• $54 will provide some extra support for elderly Survivors in Eastern Europe who are fortunate to receive visits and help from Zane Buzby and the Survivor Mitzvah Project.
• $30 will provide a struggling elderly Jew on NY’s Lower East Side with some extra credit to use at the local grocery store each month.

So, take the mouse that is sitting nearby as you read this and scroll down to the light green border of this page. Click on DONATE NOW and teach your kids about the real miracle of Hanukkah—helping others! We can promise that you will all feel good.

Chag Hanukkah Sameach!

The long weeks of war in Israel this summer may be but a memory to us right now, but to the families in Sderot there is no end to the stress and trauma that comes from living so close to the border.

Thanks to our friend, Rosa Naveh, a therapist working with mothers and children in a local clinic, we have been able to institute a new music therapy program which includes a bit of clowning as well. The therapist has been meeting with each age group separately and from the looks of the pictures we’ve received it seems as if everyone is enjoying the opportunity to relax and laugh for a change.

How does one learn to cope with years of war and terror at your door? We hope the Good People Fund’s efforts will touch at least some people and create resilience to the events around them.

Picture a huge building filled to capacity with 750 eager kids, 450 volunteers, Santa Claus, a room full of toys, pizza, fresh fruit, homemade desserts and plenty of music to get everyone in the holiday spirit—that’s Amy’s Holiday Party, a signature event of Creating Connected Communities. At the age of 12, Amy Sacks (now Amy Sacks Zeide) was stunned to learn of the theft of holiday toys at a local shelter. She immediately donated some funds to help replace those toys and the next year, as a Bat Mitzvah project, organized Amy’s Holiday Party which gathers kids from local social service agencies and offers them a fun day ending with the gifting of toys and games. This year’s party was Amy’s 20th and we were thrilled (and a bit overwhelmed) to be present and experience what can only be called an extravaganza. Nearly 2000 volunteer hours go into planning the party which offers multiple activities like face-painting, cookie decorating, all manner of arts and crafts and so much more.

What makes this event even more meaningful is that teens are responsible for much of what takes place. Amy’s organization, Creating Connected Communities, provides leadership training to local teens with a curriculum that focuses on homelessness and advocacy. The holiday party is part of the program.

We knew Amy’s story from many years ago and were not surprised to finally meet a gracious young woman who hasn’t forgotten how small actions can have a significant impact.

With more than 750,000 people relying on food pantries and other public food programs in the greater Atlanta area there is no wonder that the volunteers who commit their time to Second Helpings Atlanta are so busy.

This past Sunday morning we were privileged to personally experience a typical SHA food run and what we saw both astonished and impressed us. Founded ten years ago by the now 87 year-old Guenther Hecht as a social action project for Temple Sinai in suburban Atlanta, SHA is today an independent non-profit organization that utilizes more than 300 volunteers to pick up food largely from local supermarkets and some restaurants, 364 days a year. Our “run” was to one of the many Trader Joe’s that donates daily. Within 15 minutes, two volunteers appeared with their cars and immediately loaded box after box of fresh produce, prepared foods, meats and even beautiful flower arrangements. After a short ride to Malachi’s Storeroom housed in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, the pantry volunteers helped us unload and weigh the day’s donation. Nearly 1000 pounds of perfectly good, nutritious food was picked up from that one location and while we were still unloading another SHA volunteer arrived with her haul from a nearby Whole Foods. Every Wednesday, the pantry prepares a meal for more than 200 families (which averages about 800-1000 people) and also provides a supermarket-like shopping experience in their pantry. Judging by what we delivered we know that one thing sure to be on this Wednesday’s menu will be a beautiful fruit salad filled with healthy melons, kiwi, pineapple, bananas, apples and pears.

To know that Second Helpings Atlanta repeats this entire scenario several times each and every day is astounding. Even more amazing is the fact that they operate with one part-time employee and a minimal budget.

We couldn’t help but wonder why this model couldn’t be developed in so many more places, eradicating or reducing the seemingly impossible problem of hunger once and for all.

We often share stories about our friend Gideon Ben-Ami, who works hard each day to feed hungry people in Tel Aviv. With the help of generous businesses that donate their leftovers as well as Leket, Israel’s national food bank, that donates nearly one ton of fresh produce each week, and with the Good People Fund’s help Gideon has built a successful little organization that operates on a shoe-string and really does save lives in many different ways.

In an email received from Gideon yesterday he described a surprise delivery that had just arrived–40 cases of brand new mens’, womens’ and kids’ clothes donated by one of Israel’s largest retail chains. We didn’t quite understand the scope of this bounty until this morning when pictures arrived. With a third of the 40 boxes already distributed to local agencies, by the end of the week Gideon expects to have everything in the hands of people for whom some new clothes will be a welcome treat.

We now understand why Gideon loves his second career so much–imagine being able to spread so much “good” each and every day.