Judi Shefman, right, helps serve meals to Feed the Need recipients.

Michael Higer

JN Intern

A

lec Wagner, sous chef at Social Kitchen & Bar in
Birmingham, spent 20 hours preparing a meal for
250 hungry people — but this meal was on the

house.
Social Kitchen was the week's volunteer for Feed the Need,
a Detroit-area organization looking to help feed the needy and
hungry one restaurant at a time. This week's lunch was served
at Cass Community Social Services in Detroit.
"This is actually the first time we've done an event like this:'
Wagner said. "We've done a lot of charity events, but it's the
first time we've been to a place like this, and definitely not the
last:'
Each Wednesday, a new restaurant volunteers to "feed the
need" and serve a cafeteria-style lunch to more than 200 people
who struggle to afford to feed themselves. Restaurant volun-
teers greet them and serve them.
"That is the real premise of Feed the Need, to feed people
that are homeless and needy:' said Judi Shefman, head of the
organization.
Feed the Need was started three years ago by Mickey Bakst,
who owned the now-closed Tribute in Farmington Hills and
now owns a restaurant in South Carolina. There he saw that
homeless shelters had to cut back on meals because of the weak

JN CONTENTS

economy. When he got Feed the Need started, he realized this
was something he also wanted for his hometown of Detroit,
and that is when Shefman stepped in.
"There was a small article in the newspaper [about Feed the
Need] saying that he was from Detroit and that he wanted people
in Detroit to also start Shefman said. "So I called him, I talked
to him, and he told me I needed to get some restaurants on
board with it because I'm not involved in the restaurant business
at all, and they would need to help me:'
And help out they did. Since Feed the Need was brought to
Detroit, more than 80 Metro Detroit restaurants have volun-
teered to serve lunch to the hungry, including Jewish-owned
Local Kitchen and Bar, Zoup and the Stage Deli. Each week the
lunches alternate between Cass Community Social Services and
the Baldwin Center in Pontiac.
"Most of the restaurants have been so generous because it's
really costly to them to feed 200 people or more in an after-
noon. They have been extremely helpful:' Shefman said.
Along with Shefman, the organization is also run by John
Carlin. Both of them share a view of a larger Feed the Need in
the future.
"We'd like to expand it. We're doing it once a week now, but
we'd like to expand it to more often:' Shefman said.

❑

Restaurants interested in helping with Feed the Need can contact Judi

Shefman at (248) 682-7728 or at judisteve@yahoo.com .

theJEWISHNEWS.com

May 22-28, 2014 I 22-28 Iyar 5774 I Vol. CXLV, No. 16

Analysis
51
Around Town
28
Arts/Entertainment .. 119
Business
50
38
Calendar
Cap & Gown
53
Family Focus
127
Food
124
40
jewish@edu
Israel .. 18, 30, 35, 36, 40
51, 115, 127
JN Archives
6
Life Cycles
129
Marketplace
134
Metro
8

Next Generation
115
Obituaries
141
121
Out & About
Points Of View
112
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Staff Box/Phone List... 6
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116
Torah Portion
117
World
32

Shabbat: Friday, May 23, 8:37 p.m.
Shabbat Ends: Saturday, May 24, 9:48 p.m.

Shabbat: Friday, May 30, 8:43 p.m.
Shabbat Ends: Saturday, May 31, 9:55 p.m.

Times are from Yeshiva Beth Yehudah calendar.

Columnists

Danny Raskin
Robert Sklar

Shabbat Lights

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Because he came from an educated
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These experiences convinced
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everywhere who deserve opportunities
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the help of the William Davidson
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help give more of them those oppor-
tunities to be successful."

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