Sweet New Year
Kids for Kosher Food Bank, an organization started by two mothers, teaches children the value of giving.
September 24, 2011 By Ana Veciana-Suarez/aveciana@MiamiHerald.com
- Walter Michot/Miami Herald Staff/ Enthusiasm: Students at the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School in North Miami-Dade bring items they are contributing to the Kosher Food Bank.
When Keren Vainstein, all of 8 years old, saw the list of requests from the Jewish Community Services Kosher Food Bank, she had a simple message for her mother.
“I wanted to donate the whole list,” the second-grader said. “I wanted poor people to have food for the holidays.”
Keren and her schoolmates at the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School, along with students from other Hebrew schools and day schools in Miami-Dade, have collected hundreds of items for the needy just in time for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year that begins at sundown on Wednesday. They’ve piled bottles of honey and jars of gefilte fish, packages of honey cake and containers of apple sauce — traditional food items for the holidays — into bins that volunteer parents from the Kids for Kosher Food Bank will take to the food bank in North Miami Beach.
The collection for the holidays is part of an ongoing food drive organized by two mothers who launched the Kids for Kosher Food Bank to teach children tzedakah, the Hebrew word for charity.
“As a mother and as a Jewish mother, I want to teach my children to give,” said co-founder Anat Garzon, whose three children attend Hillel in North Miami-Dade. “You can tell them to give, but that’s not how they learn. They learn by doing.”
The concept of giving, added Sharon Rudman, the other founder, is an integral part of Jewish life.
“The idea is to start them young,” Rudman said, “so that when they grow up, giving is like breathing. They start now by bringing a can. When they’re adults, they can finance a program.”
In its third year, Kids for Kosher Food Bank began with one bin at Hillel, after Garzon approached Jewish Community Services to see how she could help. She already donated nonperishable food items and often brought her children along to the food bank, but she envisioned a bigger project that kids of all ages could participate in. She and Rudman also wanted to make it easy and affordable for families.
“Everybody can bring in at least one thing,” Garzon said, “even from your family’s own pantry.”
- Walter Michot/Miami Herald Staff/ Donations Pile Up: Day school students place items in a cart. Because patrons keep kosher, they can’t accept food from other food banks.
Pinchos Hecht, Hillel’s head of school, thought the idea a “perfect opportunity” to teach his students the lesson of charity. “The purpose of Jewish education is to connect the holy to the good,” he said. “And this project does that. You’re also building a culture of future service and leadership.”
Now dozens of bins with the handprint-logo of Kids for Kosher Food Bank have been placed not only in Hillel classrooms but also in 13 other Miami-Dade schools. The bins are collected on a monthly basis and field trips are arranged once or twice a year so that the children can visit the food bank
to see how their contributions help families in need.
An added benefit: “Usually it’s the parents who involve the kids,” Rudman said. “But this is different. The children bring in the parents and initiate the giving.”
The help comes at a particularly difficult time for the JCS Kosher Food Bank, which serves 310 families who, because of their adherence to Jewish dietary laws, cannot find help in other area food pantries. Last year, new clients doubled at the same time grants and donations fell off. The food bank,
a beneficiary agency of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, is funded primarily through Jewish Community Services, but it also depends on private donors.
What’s more, the food bank hands out more than food. Staff members conduct client assessments and refer them, as needed, to other JCS agencies.
“A program like this is so critical because it helps us respond to the need in the community,” said David Feigenbaum, JCS vice president of resource development, of the Kids for Kosher Food Bank. “It supplements what we do very well.”
Back at Hillel, 19000 NE 25th Ave., the kids have packed the donated items into a large gray bin that is ready to be ferried to the food bank. Some of them have gone beyond the call of duty.
Carla Nicolaievsky, a fourth-grader, gave up gifts for her ninth birthday. Instead, “I asked for Publix gifts cards so I could give them to the Kosher Food Bank,” she said. “It made me feel good because I was helping people who really need help.”
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/23/2421816/kids-for-kosher-food-bank-collects.html#ixzz1YyvfHttg