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.

I am not sure about you, but my head is spinning from the myriad of days that have passed since Thanksgiving…Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and the culmination of them all, #GivingTuesday.

While we applaud a day dedicated to giving, here at the Good People Fund we think of giving on a daily basis, be it Tuesday or Friday or any other day, which is why a recent article by David Nocenti in The Chronicles of Philanthropy really resonated for us.

Mr. Nocenti shared; “I urge all nonprofits to join my organization in not asking for money on Giving Tuesday. Instead, let’s give to the communities we serve and to the people who support us.”

The Good People Fund will be joining Mr. Nocenti and the Union Settlement Association in East Harlem (N.Y.) by giving back to some of our programs in the ways we have outlined below. In addition, we will be matching any donations sent to Amir Project for their new project which brings social justice education to kids in camps that serve low-income kids.

We would much rather give EVERYDAY!

Our work with Craig Diserens and his California-based, Village Harvest, began two years ago but it was not until today that we truly understood the amount of effort and the logistical planning that goes into this backyard gleaning effort that gathers thousands of pounds of luscious fresh fruit and gets it into the hands of local hunger programs where people who might not have the means to purchase costly produce can enjoy the seasonal bounty.

Within a three hour time span about 15 volunteers, led by a volunteer coordinator, gathered at the local food agency and received instructions and maps to nearby homes where they were to pick crate after crate of luscious persimmons. Watching the precision and the coordinated actions of the volunteers was impressive. Everyone seemed to know what to do and how to be helpful. With the agency’s van equipped with all of the tools needed to carry out the mission– ladders, telescoping pickers to reach the highest branches, crates, gloves, rakes and more–about three hours later the results, pictured below, included 900 pounds of fresh, juicy persimmons and a corps of volunteers who had come together to benefit their community.

Day after day we sit at our desk and write checks for our programs — all of whom do outstanding, creative and important work on behalf of people too often forgotten.

But today, as I read a mid-term report on our grant for ATZUM, an Israeli organization founded by the dynamic Rabbi Levi Lauer, I sensed a different, more significant meaning to the funds we were about to disburse. Among the several programs ATZUM sponsors is a tiny effort that provides for the needs of the remaining Righteous Among the Nations, those who risked their own lives during the Shoah to rescue Jews from certain death. At one time there were more than 100 individuals who made Israel their home after the war. Today, 12 elderly men and women, all infirm, live simple modest lives, often alone with no family or friends, and dependent upon National Insurance which provides for their basic needs. For everything else there is ATZUM’s support which comes in the form of volunteers and financial aid for needs not covered by National Insurance which could include housing, medical needs, legal aid and more.

Upon finishing the report I could not help but think about some of the rescuer’s stories and how, with little thought of their own safety and well-being, they helped save the lives of total strangers whose only fault was that they were Jews. It was indeed Holy money for a Holy cause as I wrote the Good People Fund check to cover some of the program’s expenses.