Sunday, October 18, hundreds of people came out to the Milken JCC in West Hills and offered up their time to Feeding the Hungry. I got to witness and participate in this amazing feat. What an experience!

We worked with Project Elijah, a foundation in Des Moines, Iowa that has developed a highly efficient method of mixing, weighing, and packaging nutritious, high protein food.  The foundation does events like this all over the country and they’ll package over 400,000 meals this year alone.

Volunteers came from congregations and schools in San Fernando, Simi, Conejo, Santa Clarita, and Antelope valleys. Response from the community was so overwhelming we we had to close down registration more than a week before the event! Anyone of any age could participate: families, seniors, teens, did the grunt work while children made cards to put into the cases of food. Talk about a teachable moment!

All the meals we packaged–and I’m not exaggerating when I say 35,000–went to SOVA/JFS. Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northidge sponsored the event and we were responsible for managing the volunteers. The food and equipment was provided through grants from the L.A. Federation Valley Alliance and the Ted and Sarah Seldin Family Fund. A big thank you goes out to everyone who made the event such a success, especially our volunteers!