“Tikkun olam” is a Hebrew phrase meaning to repair or heal the world. On Wednesday, a
couple
of dozen students from the Hebrew School at Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in
Vineyard
Haven did their part to make that a reality. They loaded 128 bags of nonperishable food
into
vehicles to be transported to the Island Food Pantry located a few blocks away at Christ
United
Methodist Church. The students ranged from ages six or seven to teenagers, and they
made a
pretty effective assembly line once they made it to the food pantry, passing bag after bag
to each
other until they filled the floor of one of the stock rooms in the pantry.
Grocery bags provided by Cronig’s were distributed at the Hebrew Center at the start of
the High
Holy Days — Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. Since the middle of September, the
congregation filled the bags with everything from coffee to Ramen noodles. Rabbi Caryn
Broitman explained that charity is an important aspect of living the Jewish faith.
“An important part of our holiday period for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur involves
the
giving of tzedakah, or charity,” the rabbi said. “The root of tzedakah is justice, so it isn’t
only charity but a sense of obligation toward making the world a more just place for all.
Our Torah
teaches that it is a community responsibility to take care of those who are hungry or
oppressed
among us.”
The food drive is an important part of the way the faith community begins their New
Year, she
said.
“We are blessed to have the Rev. Armen Hanjian, the director of the pantry, as an active
participant in our community, so we feel a very personal connection as well. We feel very
close
to and appreciative of the work of the Island Food Pantry.
“It has helped our members, our friends and our fellow Islanders, and is there when any
of us
needs it. We feel, along with all our fellow faith communities and Islanders, that it is our
basic
responsibility to make sure that every single person on this Island has enough to eat and
sustain
themselves in a healthy way.”
And for the young people, she said, there’s no better way to teach than to “do.”
“It is a lot of work to bring over 125 bags or so and the kids are great helpers. They get
the
satisfaction of knowing they are doing good and they also get to see the food pantry for
themselves,” Rabbi Broitman said.
Some of the older students are preparing for their bar or bat mitzvahs so along with study,
acts of
charity bring their faith to life. Jesse Herman is a 16-year-old student at Martha’s
Vineyard
Regional High School and after school on Wednesdays he volunteers at the Hebrew
School. It
has been only a few years since his own bar mitzvah, he said, so he can relate to the
younger
ones preparing for theirs now.
“Hebrew is a very hard language to learn and then you have to learn it without vowels
and when
you read from the Torah you have to have a certain rhythm,” he said. “Then there are
service
projects you have to do. Your bar mitzvah is the most important thing you do from the
day you
are born. It means you become a full member of the Jewish community. In the eyes of the
Jewish
community you are not a kid anymore. Part of that is that you have to try to put in your
one
percent, you know, making the world a better place.”
Reverend Hanjian watched as the students carried bag after bag into the food pantry,
sometimes
cautioning them when they came close to stepping on the bounty. A way to put the
donation in
perspective, he said, is that each bag likely contains $30 worth of food multiplied by 128
bags is
nearly $4,000 in groceries.
The Island Food Pantry feeds the hungry living all over the Island, Mr. Hanjian said. Last
year
the pantry helped 523 families, representing nearly 1,000 people on the Vineyard,
according to
his seasonal report. Some families come once or twice and others rely on the pantry on a
regular
basis. He began volunteering at the pantry in 1996, and he said the number of visits has
risen annually
from 900 then to 2,700 last year. The pantry exists due to the generosity of the
community. It
does not receive government funding or assistance, Mr. Hanjian said. Community
members
provide monetary and food donations and the purple bins at area businesses and religious
centers
serve as a reminder to think about neighbors who may not have enough to eat.
“When you don’t have enough money you patch this and that together,” Mr. Hanjian
said. “This
is one of those patches. When you make cuts, one of the places you cut down on is food.”
When members of the community donate items it helps offset the money necessary to
buy the
food when the donations run short. In 2011-2012 the pantry saw a record income of
$98,075 and
record expenditures of $95,345. Nine out of the past 15 years, the pantry has spent more
money
than it received, Mr. Hanjian said. The difference is met using proceeds from an
endowment.
There are 70 volunteers who help operate the food pantry. Besides stocking shelves and
organizing the items into categories, they are there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
from 2
to 4 p.m. when visitors can stop by for three bags of groceries per family — one for
nonperishable food items, one for fresh fruit and vegetables, and one made up of their
choice of
miscellaneous items. The food pantry operates from mid-October to mid-April and those
who
contact the pantry the rest of the year are also helped on an emergency basis.
Youngsters at the Hebrew School gain a valuable life lesson through the annual food
drive and
those who are hungry benefit from their giving.