Students at UCLA Hillel are rolling up their sleeves and joining the fight against hunger in Los Angeles. Hillel is a student organization whose mission is to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may give back to the Jewish people and the world.  One way Hillel students give back is though tzedek, which is Hebrew for “social justice.“ Every Hillel chapter has a tzedek chair who organizes service events, helping to teach students that an important part of being a community is to take care of the less fortunate.

In honor of Thanksgiving, UCLA Hillel’s hunger-project-in-charge Desiree Soleymani organized a PB&J Challenge Night.  Fifteen students came together to make as many as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as they could for the hungry in our community.  In their tzedek inspired zeal, they made over 200 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Hillel donated the sandwiches to the food recovery organization Angel Harvest, which distributed them to homeless people living in the West Hollywood area.

During the event, the students watched videos from the Fed Up with Hunger website and discussed future events for the upcoming year. UCLA Hillel will hold additional Fed Up With Hunger themed events in the coming year, including more PB&J Challenge Nights and a volunteer day at a soup kitchen.  They also plan to launch an initiative to get UCLA to donate surplus food from campus dining facilities to food aid providers.

Fed Up With Hunger applauds UCLA Hillel’s efforts to fight food insecurity in Los Angeles!  We here at Fed Up With Hunger are forming a broad coalition of student groups working against hunger.  If you’re a student activist from any campus organization, whether faith or cause based,  and you want to get involved with Fed Up With Hunger, e-mail me at ebraun@jewishla.org.  I’ll be happy to help your group find it’s place in the Fed Up With Hunger campaign!