Managing the JFS Food Pantry in a Crisis
Tom Stewart is the program coordinator of the “Hand Up” Food Pantry for Jewish Family Service. He arrives early in the morning to the warehouse. His first task is to lay out the packed food from the day before into the working space to start to prep. Then he and his team start to assemble the packages that get delivered to home-bound seniors and the drive-thru clients. Fresh produce is added to the prepared boxes of non-perishables. Between 8:30 and 9, the volunteer drivers arrive. They double-check all the routes, help them load the packages into their vehicles, resolve any questions and send them on their way. By 10, the drive-thru service starts. Cars pull up and provide some basic information, pop their trunk and the JFS team puts the bags in their trunk and they’re on their way. Then with the help of volunteers, they pack the non-perishable packages for the next day and sort through the donated produce.
Then the JFS staff commences their fresh rescue efforts. Von’s, Target and Ralph’s donate items like dairy, fresh produce, bread for staff to pick up, bring back to the warehouse and sort.
And the next day he gets up early and does it all over again. Read
Making Maccabi Magic
When the JCC Maccabi games were set to come to San Diego in 2020, I met with the committee chairs on a sunny day in Del Mar and they told me about how excited they were to have Maccabi in their home city again and the connection they had to the games. A couple months later, the pandemic started, the games were canceled and the fate of the event was left up in the air. Read
One School, One Community
When I talked to Zvi Weiss, Head of School at SDJA, it was the middle of their first summer of camp and he took some time to get on a Zoom with me from Israel. The students returning in the fall would be the main focus of our talk, but I couldn’t resist asking to see how their first summer was going.
They had about 120 students enrolled and saw many kids who were enrolled in just one session (one week) come back for multiple sessions and bring their friends.
“Just walking on campus in the morning and watching all the kids arriving, playing and the excitement, the signing, the games, the storytelling, the jokes — it really feels like camp,” Zvi Weiss said. Read
Comprehensive San Diego Jewish Community Study Poses Challenges and Opportunities
“This is one of the things that I find most interesting about San Diego,” Betzy Lynch said.
“Every other place that I have lived across the United States — which I’ve lived in five other communities — there is centricity to Jewish life, meaning the people live in the general area and if they don’t live in that general area, they can easily get to that general area. And the organizations are all pretty much there. There is Jewish life happening in every pocket, every piece of San Diego county,” Betzy said.
If you are in the business of building community across all those tiny pockets in the nooks and crannies of the San Diego landscape, knowing everything you possibly can is crucial. Read
Heidi Gantwerk’s Vision
You may know the name Heidi Gantwerk and if you don’t, she is one degree away from every name you would recognize in Jewish San Diego. Her credentials for the last 28 years in San Diego are extensive (SDJA, JCC, Congregation Beth Israel, to name a few) and now she is stepping into the role of President and CEO of Jewish Federation of San Diego County. Read