Guest Columnist

Special Report

Local Food Rescue Trades Best Practices
With Israel In The Fight Against Hunger

Amplifying America's Jewish Voice

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, addresses -

the JCPA Plenum tith Dr. Giles looking on.

Susan Goodell with Leket Israel operations manager Eli Aminof in Israel

I Susan Goodell

I

srael faces a hunger crisis not unlike
the one we currently face in Metro
Detroit. Enduring stagnant or low
wages, homelessness and increasing
poverty, nearly one in four of Israel's citi-
zens suffer from hunger and malnutri-
tion. It is a situation we know all too well
in our community where at least one in
five people faces hunger each day.
Earlier this year, I traveled to Israel to
meet with the leadership of Leket Israel
as part of a program made possible by a
grant from the Eugene A. Miller Fellows
Program of the McGregor Fund. Leket
Israel, much like Forgotten Harvest,
rescues fresh and perishable foods from
going to waste and provides
this precious food daily to
those in need. Leket Israel is
that country's largest food
rescue organization. Forgotten
Harvest is the second-largest
food rescue operation in
America.
The Fellows program pro-
vides nonprofit leadership the
opportunity to pursue activities
contributing to skills, knowl-
edge and commitment in their
field. Running an operation
on track to rescue 25 million
pounds of food this year, I
chose a study of food rescue
sites in Israel, Australia and
Germany. I spent three weeks
sharing our best practices and
learning those of Israel's own
successful food rescue program.

tons of food per week to at least 14,000
Israelis daily. It is a hefty responsibility
because unlike the United States, Israel
does not have a food stamp program or
school lunch programs for impoverished
children.
As any food rescue organization will
tell you, simply transposing the struc-
ture of one successful food program
to another and expecting it to work is
nearly impossible. But food rescuers are
incredibly innovative, consistently look-
ing for ways to overcome obstacles pre-
sented in the path of their mission. The
operations and lengths Leket Israel takes
to ensure people are fed are incredible.
For example, on the Sabbath, it would

Food Rescue on page 53

Dry Bones

BIG CfM0i

The Backdrop
Leket Israel covers an area
spanning nearly 200 miles,
from the Golan to the desert,
delivering more than 110

DryBonesBlog.com

52

Apr 4 - 2011

1111

p

eace between Israel and its
neighbors seems farther away
than it has in years. The job-
lessness and foreclosures that plague
our country are felt even worse here
in Detroit than elsewhere; meanwhile,
Congress discusses which human
needs programs will get
cut, not buttressed. And
everywhere, these debates
seem to be conducted with
exaggerated rhetoric and
incivility. But no matter the
problem, it is clear that we
cannot solve it alone.
That was the spirit in
which the Jewish Council
for Public Affairs held
our annual Plenum last
month in Washington, D.C.
It was a chance for com-
munity leaders to come together with
Washington policy makers and advo-
cates to discuss our nation's problems
from energy security to poverty and
what we can do from a community
level on up.
The strength of the conversation at
the JCPA Plenum, though, came from
the breadth of our participants and
speakers. The JCPA, which I am in my
final year of chairing, is the national
umbrella for multi-issue Jewish orga-
nizations engaged in public policy
and community relations. Our cur-
rent membership includes 14 national
member agencies and 125 local Jewish
Community Relations Councils as well
as the Anti-Defamation League, the
American Jewish Committee, Hadassah
and the four main religious streams.
The annual Plenum provides us an
opportunity to share with one another,
our members of Congress, the Obama
administration, Israeli officials, religious
leaders and other community leaders
— a network that gives the Jewish com-

munity the ability to speak with a voice
more powerful than our numbers.
President Obama's senior adviser,
Valerie Jarrett, made that point in
praising our work to pass the repeal of
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and a new child
nutrition law. Focusing on common
values, the Jewish community
was able to get these impor-
tant bills to the president's
desk. Michigan's own U.S. Sen.
Carl Levin (D-Detroit) relied
on that voice when he, in his
own words, "came to lobby
us." He urged the delegates
to meet with their members
of Congress and speak up on
the budget to prevent draco-
nian cuts to safety net and
human needs programs.
Israeli Ambassador Michael
Oren stressed that need for partner-
ship in ensuring Israel's security. The
relationship between American and
Israeli Jews is complicated; but our
shared commitment to Israel is unwav-
ering and must continue to be as
Israel faces an uncertain future.
Being the region's only democracy
has always been a point of pride, Oren
said, but Israel would rather be one
of many functioning democracies.
For that to happen, though, a vocal
American Jewish community needs
to encourage the U.S. to be actively
engaged in the Middle East and ensure
new democracies are open and toler-
ant — otherwise, we will end up with
what we see in Gaza, Lebanon or Iran.
Together, our voice is amplified in
Washington, heard by the president
and Congress and felt in our local
communities through the national and
local partnership at the core of JCPA.
This was a lesson that others would

Jewish Voice on page 53