Yesterday your incredible Seventh graders helped deliver food to the Brookline Food Pantry. Thank you to Jim who was so helpful in explaining how the Food Pantry works and its' importance in our community. Did you know the food pantry used to have an expense of about $25,000 and now they expect to have an expense of $90,000 this year? The need for food has increased in our neighborhood significantly. One of the common misconceptions we had walking in was expecting everyone who used the service of the food pantry to be homeless. Actually, most of the food at the food Pantry requires the use of a kitchen. Most people coming are working and have homes, but are still in need of assistance to have enough food. In a world where we can go shopping and fill as many bags as we want and when if hungry we can just eat more, people at the Food Pantry are allowed to come every two weeks and fill up one or two shopping bags (depending on if they are single or a family). Not everyone comes every two weeks, but the amount of visits most people make a year has increased over the years. Our students asked great questions and were impressed with the cleanliness and organization of the pantry. When we came back to Temple Ohabei Shalom we had a great discussion about the levels of Mitzvot. There are many roles people can play in fulfilling a Mitzvah from donating money, time, resources, etc. Anyone can do a Mitzvah (commandment, good deed) but what can we do to elevate a simple act to make it better. At the Brookline Food Pantry they ensure everything looks clean, that the waiting room looks beautiful, and people's anonymity is kept. We then asked if Mitzvah means commandment how do we feel that we are commanded to do these things? Would it be better if we came up with these acts on our own? How do we feel knowing it was commanded? Do you think people would take care of each other on their own without the commandments? I think you'll be amazed by some of the answers...
Enjoy pictures of our whole food collecting process from High Holy Day Collecting, to Mitzvah Day sorting, to Food Pantry delivery...
The amount of food shown here TIMES 2 will last HALF A WEEK at the Brookline Food Pantry.
