December 5, 2024 |

High Holiday Food Drive

Get your year off to a great start with the mitzvah of providing food to the hungry.  Please join our annual High Holydays Food Drive benefiting an area food pantry.  As we fast this Yom Kippur, we will again join hundreds of other congregations, representing all four major movements, in collecting food for the hungry.  Together we can continue the Torah tradition of leaving the produce of the “corners of our fields” for the needy.

Between 18 and 20 million Americans are estimated to go hungry year round; eight million who are suffering from hunger are children.  When you come to Kol Nidre services, (Tuesday evening, October 8th) for our annual food drive, please bring a quantity of non-perishable high protein food – canned goods, cereal, rice, beans, pasta, peanut butter, baby formula or other dry staples. Please no glass containers, all items must have a current expiration date and be unopened. We will have a vehicle in the front parking lot for use in both collecting and distributing the food.

Yom Kippur’s emphasis on teshuvah (repentance), tzedakah (righteous giving), and abstinence is given very clear and immediate embodiment in the quantity of food we collect each year. The timing of this particular project has spiritual significance – on Yom Kippur morning, we read in Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? … Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry?” and material significance – our donations to local Natick food shelters help fill the understocked shelves between the summer season and the more bountiful contributions of the Thanksgiving and winter holidays. By donating food to feed the hungry and homeless, we will continue to answer Isaiah’s call.

When our many members participate in this hunger relief drive, our Congregation substantially contributes to meeting the hunger needs of our greater community. Please join the numerous Temple families who have made this program a significant and satisfying part of their Yom Kippur experience.