Volunteers pack lunches for people facing food insecurity during Posner JEM Religious School's family education event to support JVC's Bunches of Lunches program. (Photo by Steve Ruark)
Over the past few months, Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation has donated more than 2,000 meals to community members facing food insecurity. It’s all part of a social action program coordinated by the Pikesville congregation’s Tikkun Olam Projects from A to Z (TOPAZ) committee and its Posner JEM Religious School.
Each month, HSOSC packs more than 500 tote bags for Weekend Backpacks, a Pikesville-based nonprofit that provides meals to food-insecure youth in Baltimore City. Over the past five years, the congregation has packed more than 25,000 Weekend Backpacks. Each bag contains enough food to feed three to four people at least six meals over the weekend.
The produce distribution is through the synagogue’s Collaborating for Care program in which HSOSC partners with Life Builders Church to distribute fresh produce. Recipients receive bags filled with potatoes, onions, string beans, apples, tomatoes, peppers, corn, bananas and fresh greens.
Both Collaborating for Care and Weekend Backpacks rely on sponsorships from HSOSC members and their businesses.
On Sunday morning, Oct. 31, HSOSC families came together for three hours to schmooze and nosh with other religious school families while learning about Jewish Volunteer Connection’s Bunches of Lunches program. They also helped pack approximately 500 lunches that will be donated to community members facing food insecurity.
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