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.

