12 | SEPTEMBER 9 • 2021 

W

ith Sweet & Savory, Metro 
Detroit’s Jewish community 
can send food packages 
to loved ones. Whether to celebrate a 
joyous occasion or to simply show some 
love in a time of need, one of the newest 
programs from Partners Detroit aims to 
provide home-cooked meals on delivery.
Launched in May of this year, Sweet 
& Savory is a volunteer-based kindness 
program where local Jewish community 
members can donate their time to 
cooking soups and baking cakes, which 
are later packaged with cards and 
delivered to homes. People can apply 
on Partners Detroit’s website to either 
receive a food package or request one to 
be sent out.
“It’s an opportunity for people to give 
back,” says Shaindel Fink of Partners 
Detroit, “and a way to reinforce a sense 
of community.”
As the brainchild of Chef Debra 
Walter, who has been involved with 
Partners Detroit for six years, Sweet & 
Savory was created in honor of her father 
Seymour Kleiman, who passed away 

in September 2020. “She wanted to do 
something in his memory,” Fink explains. 
“She is very passionate about cooking, so 
she came up with Sweet & Savory.”

FROM OUR KITCHEN TO YOURS
In collaboration with Partners Detroit 
and Partners in Care, the organization’s 
community kindness division, the 
program was built out and launched to 
the Metro Detroit Jewish community. 
Sweet & Savory’s slogan of “from our 
kitchen to yours” relates back to the 
idea of the program, which involves 
volunteers getting together to cook 
at an event space at Platform 18, 
Partners Detroit’s new event space and 
community center in Royal Oak.
There, volunteers create the sweet 
and savory food packages (soup and a 
cake), which are then delivered by other 
volunteers. “People can apply online for a 
free package,” Fink says. “Every package 
is delivered in a beautiful insulated bag 
with the logo on it.”
Additionally, recipients of a Sweet & 
Savory food package also receive a list 

of ingredients for the meals they receive, 
so they can recreate them at home. A 
card is also added to the package that 
can send messages for speedy recoveries, 
thinking of you or to simply say mazel 
tov. Each card is signed: “Made with 
love, from our kitchen to yours — Your 
Partners Detroit Family.”
While Partners Detroit, a Jewish-faith 
community organization that curates 
educational programs and service 
projects, sponsors program operations, 
Fink says volunteers are the ones who 
keep the wheels turning. “Women give 
up their time to cook and bake and 
deliver,” she says. “It’s really been such a 
fantastic program that everyone feels so 
amazing about.”

SENDING KIND GESTURES
Fink says both volunteers and recipients 
of Sweet & Savory packages are moved 
by the gesture, which has already lifted 
spirits of Jewish Metro Detroiters 
going through challenging times. One 
woman who participated in Partners 
Detroit programming, for example, was 
severely ill in the hospital, so she and 
her husband were sent a Sweet & Savory 
package.
Though the woman passed away 
that evening before the package was 

Sheri Aahron-Miller, Debra Walter and 
Shaindel Fink cooking at Platform 18 for the 
Sweet & Savory program.

With homemade soup and a cake, Sweet & 
Savory delivers care packages to doorsteps.

Delivered
 with Kindness

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTOS FROM PARTNERS DETROIT

A Sweet & Savory delivery package.

OUR COMMUNITY

