Statistics from 2012 show that approximately one in four people in Milwaukee is going hungry.
A panel of four people, representing Jewish organizations in the community, met on March 9 at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun to discuss “Local Jewish Responses to the Hunger Crisis.”
Executive director of Tikkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee Judy Baruch was moderator. The panel for this Tikkun Ha-Ir-sponsored brunch and learn program comprised:
• Doug Fox, who started and currently maintains the community garden at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center;
• Pam Frydman-Roza, the food justice coordinator at Tikkun Ha-Ir overseeing the Surplus Harvest Milwaukee project;
• Donna Neubauer, from Congregation Sinai and the coordinator for the Mother Scott Christian Youth Center meal program;
• Reenie Kavalar, chair of the Salinsky Program to Feed the Hungry at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun.
In its first year, Frydman-Roza said, the Surplus Harvest Milwaukee project collected 30 pounds of produce from local gardens. Within four years, the program grew with help from other Jewish organizations; it collected 28,000 pounds of whole food in 2013.
“(We) want to emphasize the importance of relationship building and collaboration,” Frydman-Roza said. “We’re not working as individuals; we’re not working as organizations. We can do much more if we collaborate with one another.”
Some of the food that is regularly collected and distributed comes from the Jewish community gardens at the JCC and at CEEBJ, which are both maintained by volunteers.
Fox said the garden at the JCC was started specifically to give food to the hungry and that it’s typical for a garden to produce an overabundance every growing season.
“Starting small, things start to grow and you start handing things out to people,” he said. “It has really been an inspirational thing.”
The community garden began as a way to help people grow their own food and to teach children about where food comes from.
“It’s been a great place to bring people together across generations,” Fox said. Children come to water the plants and adults maintain the garden and socialize.
He said about 18,000 community gardens exist in the U.S. today, used for many purposes; but 15 percent of all food grown in the world comes from urban gardens, which include backyards, empty lots or rooftops. Benefits of community gardens, he said, include fostering a sense of community and building leadership.
The CEEBJ garden was planted in early 2013 and volunteers harvested more than 140 pounds of fresh produce to serve the hungry.
The Bethesda Church of God in Christ meal program also benefits from the fresh garden produce. Kavalar has been instrumental in coordinating programs that educate the congregation.
Louise Decasseres Mayer Salinsky, a long-time member of CEEBJ, bequeathed a donation from her estate to the synagogue with the wish that the money would go toward feeding the hungry.
Through use of this donation, Kavalar has been responsible for collecting and sorting food for the Hunger Task Force, and has given fresh garden produce to the Jewish Food Pantry, Meta House, Silver Spring Neighborhood Center Pantry, Sharon Seventh Day Church and the Friedens Food Pantry.
Since July 2011, CEEBJ has given more than 88,000 pounds of food from the use of the Salinsky donation.
While these local charities received fresh food regularly, the garden produce hasn’t been the only source of food donations.
Neubauer has assisted in distribution of food to three charities through Congregation Sinai. Two years ago, she became active with its social action committee, which has supported Pathfinders Drop-In Center, the Bethesda Church of God in Christ meal program and the Scott Christian Youth Center meal program.
Congregation members have prepared food for the charities and also collect and distribute leftover prepared food from synagogue events. Neubauer said the donations have become a way to make connections with people aside from the hunger issue.
“Once a month, Congregation Sinai serves families at the Drop-In Center so that the clients can have healthy food while they’re using the other facilities,” she said. “We make a concerted effort to make a personal connection with the youth. We bring foods, and families stay and eat with them so it becomes a personal contact.”
Neubauer and Frydman-Roza collaborated recently to bring fresh garden produce as it becomes available during the growing season to the Mother Scott Center.
This year, four garden beds at CEEBJ will be planted with tomatoes, carrots and green beans, among other crops, and the JCC garden will include tomatoes, Swiss chard and strawberries. If there is an overabundance, volunteers will can or freeze foods to extend the giving season.
Rebecca Levine is a freelance writer living in Menomonee Falls.
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