High Holidays Food Drive

During the fall holidays participate in our annual Rodfei Zedek food drive benefiting the Hyde Park-Kenwood Food Pantry.  Please fill a bag with non-perishable items and return it to the synagogue lobby.

The Hyde Park-Kenwood Hunger Programs welcome donations all year around.  Wish List:

• Brown rice:  1- or 2-lb. boxes/bags.  We can't usually get it from the food depository, and we've been getting a lot of requests for brown rice as people become more health-conscious.
• Ground coffee or instant coffee, regular and decaf:  Again, seldom available from the food depository, and a treat for our recipients.
• Saltine crackers:  Regular 1-lb box with 4 sleeves inside. This is one of our regular items to go with the soup and peanut butter in our basic bag.  We get saltines because everyone likes saltines and can chew or melt them in their mouths–unlike Triscuits or other kinds of crackers–no matter how bad their teeth or gums are.  Saltines are almost never available from the food depository, and the cost from our wholesaler is rising, so we'd be happy to get them from a food drive.
• Clean plastic bags:  If there are any members of your congregation who would like to recycle their plastic grocery bags with us, we'd be very happy to take them. 
• Personal hygiene products:  Soaps and other toiletries, deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste often are not part of the budget of people in need of food and may not be purchased with food stamps.  They are necessary to a healthy quality of life, however, and may affect peoples' ability to look for work and children's comfort in going to school. 
• Produce:  Apples, sweet potatoes and onions (long-lasting produce) can now be accepted. 

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Adapted from Fighting Hunger from the Ground Up, a campaign of the American Jewish World Service:

Unetaneh Tokef

Challenging the Destiny of Hunger

As we come together on the High Holidays, we look not only inward at our own deeds, but also outward at the world at large.  We are part of a deeply interwoven global family for which we are all personally responsible.  The hunger, poverty and disease that afflict our world are not an irrevocable destiny, but injustices that we can overcome.  This year, as we aspire to achieve a better world, let us take responsibility for the more than one billion people living in hunger today.

             B’rosh hashanah yekatevun, u’vyom tzom kippur yechatemun.

On Rosh Hashanah the future of the world is uncertain, and on Yom Kippur a new reality may be sealed.

Will we stand by as one sixth of all humanity suffers from hunger and malnutrition?  Will we ignore the cries of 25,000 people each day who lose their lives to hunger?

Or will we fight injustice and exploitation by planting the seeds for sustainability and promoting human dignity for people everywhere?

             U’tshuvah u’tefilah u’tzedakah ma’avirin et ro’a ha’gezeirah.

Our actions can pave the way for this new reality.

During the Days of Awe, and every day, we hold the collective power to change the world.  As we reflect on the year past and the year to come, we must recognize our responsibility, hope for a better reality and pursue justice. May our prayers today inspire us to become agents for change, working to ensure that all people are guaranteed the human right to food and sustenance. May the shofar blast awaken our hearts and motivate us to forge a just world where none are hungry and all are inscribed for a lifetime of peace and fulfillment.

We gratefully acknowledge Whole Foods’ donation
of grocery bags for our annual food drive.

→ High Holidays webpage or Food Justice webpage