Contact Volunteer Services to learn more.
It’s early on a Sunday afternoon, and the JFS assembly room is full of action for a Families Fight Hunger event. Volunteers are busy packing 2,000 pounds of bulk rice and beans into individual bags that will each serve one household. 105 care packs are being assembled for elderly immigrant clients. Kids are writing messages and coloring hunger advocacy cards to demonstrate the impact of this problem to our legislators in Olympia. Teens from a local synagogue and college students from surrounding universities are busy keeping all of the projects moving along. Children, parents and grandparents are laughing and chatting but also getting the work done with a sense of purpose.
Each volunteer and every one of the projects helps the Polack Food Bank – to save us money, to show elders that they are cared for and to remind legislators that, although the hungry may not have an army of lobbyists, they do have us and we will speak up for their needs. Families Fight Hunger events accomplish a volume, scope and scale of work that we could not accomplish on our own.
The families who come to volunteer with us represent a diverse cross section of the Jewish community. They come from many different synagogues or none at all. Some are intermarried households and some are not. Some have preschoolers and others have teens. All of these families are welcomed and needed.
JFS is the best reflection of our community and its participation and support. Together we are learning how to live out tikkun olam – our shared responsibility to repair the world. One bag of rice at a time. It is not someone else’s job to feed the hungry – this work is all of ours. Families Fight Hunger events bring together people of all ages and skill sets to help vulnerable individuals and families in the Puget Sound region achieve well-being, health and stability. The events are values into action in the most hands-on way.
Will you join us for our next event? If not now, when?
By Jana Lissiak & Lauren Rosenblum
Skier, hiker, wife and food bank manager are just a few of the things folks call Food Bank Manager Jana Prothman Lissiak. Jana has a master’s degree in Public Administration and has worked with clients experiencing poverty in social services for the past 8 years.
La
uren is the Program Assistant for Volunteer Services. Outside of work, she enjoys sharing her stories about teaching English in Israel for a year, watching baseball and college basketball, and reading a good book.
Feature image and slideshow by Lana Blinderman.
