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High Holy Day Food Drive

Sunday, August 27, 2023 • 10 Elul 5783

All Day for 45 Days

The High Holy Day Food Drive is a long-standing tradition at Temple Beth El. Every year we ask the congregation to honor the new year and our tradition of fasting by making a monetary contribution to hunger relief.

Donate online now (choose “High Holy Day Food Drive” as the payment type), or mail a check made out to Temple Beth El with “High Holy Day Food Drive” in the memo.

According to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin, this has been “a year of stark realities,” as pandemic-era aid comes to an end and rising food costs strain low-income Americans. According to U.S. Census Bureau data and two surveys from anti-hunger groups in June, about 26.5 million Americans reported sometimes or often not having enough to eat, up 12% from June 2022. This year Temple Beth El hopes to raise at least $14,000 to help address hunger in our community. Last year we were recognized as a bronze-level sponsor of the Second Harvest Foodbank and NBC15’s Share the Holidays drive, the only nonprofit organization to achieve this recognition, and it’s our goal to reach that level again this year. We give most of the money we raise to Second Harvest Foodbank because it is the region’s largest and most cost-effective food bank, distributing millions of pounds of food each year in southern Wisconsin. The funds are also used to support our hunger relief efforts through local partners such as food pantries, community centers, and schools, and to fund our food projects on Mitzvah Day. Jewish texts and traditions address the importance of caring for the poor and hungry among us. On Yom Kippur we are reminded: “Is this not the fast I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6). On this day we turn toward those whose fast will not conclude at day's end, whose fast is not the holy fast of repentance but the involuntary fast of relentless poverty. With these values in mind, we hope you will participate this year and every year in the High Holy Day Food Drive. Your donation will help us minimize food insecurity for our neighbors in Dane County.

Donate now to the High Holy Day Food Drive or mail your check today.

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December 22, 2024 21 Kislev 5785