32 | AUGUST 5 • 2021

T

he Hazon Michigan
Jewish Food Festival is
back. The 2021 version
will be celebrated safely and at
a new location on Sunday, Aug.
15, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. as partici-
pants drive through the grounds
of the Marygrove Conservancy
at McNichols and Wyoming ave-
nues Detroit.
The festival is Hazon’s largest
event in the country. The pur-
pose of the festival is to educate

people on how they can be more
sustainable and live a healthi-
er life — and to find out what
organizations do to help make a
difference.
The festival was held at Eastern
Market in Detroit for four years.
The last in-person festival in
2019 was estimated to draw
about 7,000 people.
Not being able to meet in-per-
son last year, Hazon created the
Food Festival in a Box, seeking to

connect people to local entrepre-
neurs making healthy products
from local ingredients. Hazon
knew knew they had to come up
with something different this year.
With the uncertainty of the pan-
demic, the solution was to turn it
into a drive-thru event.
“We’re putting together in 10
weeks what normally I would
spend 10 months doing,
” said
Marla Schloss, Hazon Detroit’s
Food Festival manager.
Cars will go from station to
station, about one minute at
each, to hear how Hazon and its
partners are supporting and/or
making a sustainable difference,
taste samples of foods, receive
goodies, giveaways and prepared
activities.
Since this is a drive-thru event
and there are limited spots, regis-
tration is required. The event can
handle 40 cars an hour and 280
cars total.
“What’s very important for

us is this is an event that when
people come away, they will
feel a personal commitment to
making change and creating a
more sustainable world for all,
”
Schloss said. “It could have to do
with reducing household waste
or food waste, transitioning to a
plant-rich diet, reducing energy,
getting to grow and buy local
or to buy less. These are the key
areas we want people to learn
about and commit to, and they’re
going to receive this information
throughout the festival.
”
Thanks to the William
Davidson Foundation and D.
Dan & Betty Kahn Foundation,
the event is free once again.
To participate in the festival as
a volunteer, sponsor, vendor or
organizational partner, or if you
have questions about the festival,
contact Marla Schloss at marla.
schloss@hazon.org.

For information, visit hazon.org/detroit/

michigan-jewish-food-festival.

OUR COMMUNITY

Hazon festival has new format and location.
Food Fest Returns

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

O

n Friday night and
Saturday morning,
Aug. 13-14, members
of the Metro Detroit Jewish
community will come together
to celebrate Green Shabbat,
sponsored by Hazon Detroit.
More than a dozen part-
nering synagogues and Jewish
organizations will spend
Shabbat, each from its own
location, engaged in environ-
mentally friendly practices,
learning about Jewish connec-
tions to the Earth, advocating
on behalf of the climate and
committing to help ensure a
healthier and more sustainable
planet. The event takes place
in association with the 2021
Hazon Michigan Jewish Food

Festival happening on Aug. 15.
“We recognize that issues
of the environment and sus-
tainability really cut across all
different kinds of organiza-
tions, geography and denomi-
nations, and that sustainability
and caring for the planet is a
Jewish and human value and
something we can
all get behind,”
said Rabbi Nate
DeGroot of
Hazon Detroit.
“This is a
chance for the
community to
get excited about the festival,
to celebrate the sustainability
efforts this community has
taken on and to feel connected

after a long time apart.”
The core of the program is a
collective Zoom call at 7 p.m.
Friday for all the communi-
ties who are participating to
do the Kiddush and HaMotzi
together, along with a brief
welcome and celebration of
the community’s participation
and efforts toward sustain-
ability.
Then, each community will
take it and run with it in the
way they best see fit.
“Some of the rabbis in
these communities might be
giving sermons on the topic
of sustainability, some might
be featuring special foods at
their dinner or at their oneg,”
DeGroot said. “Many of them
will be using compostable
dishware, plates, cups and
utensils, or reusable/washable
ones.”
Community members are
urged to seek out what their
home community or syna-

gogue has planned and then
to participate in that service
or celebration. “In essence,
showing up at their home
community, and together, cele-
brating as a large community,”
DeGroot said.
“For none of these organiza-
tions is this the starting point
for their sustainability work
— these are all organizations
who have been committed to
growing their practices of sus-
tainability and participating in
community-wide efforts to do
the same,” DeGroot said.
“Hopefully this will be a
furthering and deepening,
but also a celebration of the
work that has been ongoing
and will be continuing going
forward.”

To find out which synagogues and

organizations are participating, to

sign-up for the live Zoom event and

for other information, visit hazon.org/

calendar/greenshabbat2021.

Several synagogues and organizations
will join Hazon event.

Green Shabbat

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Rabbi Nate
DeGroot

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