26 | MARCH 25 • 2021

M

embers of Young Israel of
Southfield have always helped
their own, reaching out to
homebound seniors and others who need
help. In the past two years, they’ve also
developed a special relationship with the
school next door.
Young Israel is a small congregation
— only 140 families — but its members
feel very connected to the neighborhood,
where almost all of them live so they can
be within walking distance of the Modern
Orthodox synagogue.
Most of the congregation’s children
go to Jewish day schools, but the con-
gregation feels connected to Stevenson
Elementary School, their closest neighbor.
The K-5 school has 400 students, includ-

ing one Jewish family.
Congregants were helping the school
community before the COVID shutdowns
by funding food packages for low-in-
come families through the Blessings in
a Backpack program, headquartered in
Rochester Hills. The program aids stu-
dents who receive in-school meals on
weekdays by providing food boxes to
help their families through the weekends.
The congregation underwrote the cost
of packages for families that included 50
Stevenson children.
Research has shown that as many as
5 million American children have food
insecurity — meaning they are often hun-
gry, said congregation member Andrea
Gruber. “Hungry kids just pull at my

heartstrings,” she said.
The congregation was planning to
expand its support to two additional
schools when COVID hit in early 2020.
Blessings in a Backpack went on hiatus. At
the start of the current school year, Young
Israel of Southfield decided to provide its
own food boxes.
Contributions poured in as soon as the
food drive was announced. “My basement
looked like a Meijer warehouse!” said
Gruber, who coordinated the drive.
Through September and October, syna-
gogue members prepared food boxes that
they placed in cars as the families drove
up to the school. Then they decided a food
pantry would be more efficient.
They’d already been doing something
similar internally. Many synagogue fam-

OUR COMMUNITY

“The Little Shul that Could” helps school next door.

Good Neighbors

continued on page 28

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF YIS

Rabbi Morris and his 8-year-old son Moshe
restock the food pantry.
Volunteers distribute food.