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The Lev Lara’ev project has been ongoing since January 2006 and is proving to be an overall success, not only in terms of food collection, but also with respect to community involvement and as an educational experience for young people instilling caring values and an understanding of helping the less fortunate.

The main areas of focus of the project have been in these areas:

·         Direct Food Collection

·         Youth and Students Activities

·         Community Interaction

Direct Food Collection

Food bins for direct collections were placed at various sites around Ra’anana enabling citizens to make individual contributions directly.

These bins attracted substantial interest and donations were substantial. Specifically food bins were placed at five different sites around the city including the Shivtei Yisrael synagogue.

The involvement of local business was also encouraged. Two separate supermarket chains allowed food bins to be placed inside their stores – the former Rama supermarket and the Victory chain of stores. In addition in-house food drives took place at two other companies, with the drive at Eric Cohen Books alone managing to collect over 110KG of groceries prior to Pesach.

Schools also became involved and food bins were placed at 5 different schools in the city. These brought in additional groceries with the Bilu Elementary School’s 1^st grade students producing over 20 KG of groceries on their own!

Although collections were substantial, the amounts received did not quite reach anticipated levels and this is believed to be a result of the general tightening in the economy and people being more careful in light of increased food prices, rent and fuel costs. It is anticipated this situation may continue for a considerable period yet.

Youth and Student Activities

Youth groups and students have been actively involved in various food drives throughout the community. Two examples are the members of the Shivtei Yisrael youth group and the students of the Ra’anana Hesder Yeshiva. They both undertook door-to-door campaigns to collect groceries. This proved to be a good experience and a successful operation. It positively impacted the community and also raised awareness of the campaign and needs among the public at large.

A new program was started in July with the official launch of the Kids4Food club. This program has numerous objectives not just food collection. It aims to collect groceries for the needy but is an educational learning experience as well, intended to teach the youth about responsibility, independence, charity and caring for the people less fortunate than themselves.

The club requires members – all children between the ages of 5 and 15 – to go around once a month and collect grocery items from family members, friends and neighbours. Kids4Food empowers the participants directly enabling the child to be in charge of their own grocery collection project from beginning to end. Decision making, problem solving, collection and distribution matters are left in the hands of the club members and they are encouraged to find their own solutions and methodologies, with overall supervision by a senior Lev Lara’ev member. The club has been a great success and equally well received by participants and their parents for the positive contribution it makes – educationally and practically.

Additional youth activities will take place during the upcoming school year as a new program is being implemented in all local elementary, junior and high schools. With the involvement and co-operation of the municipality’s Social Services and Education departments, Parent Committees and Student Councils a grocery collection project will become a regular activity. Lev Lare’ev will be responsible for placement of food bins in schools, grocery collection and food distribution to various non-profit groups in Ra’anana.

Community Interaction

Community involvement is a key focus of Lev Lare’ev. Meetings with community leaders, municipal leaders, educators, rabbis, and youth leaders have been ongoing during the year. These meetings have attempted to communicate the objectives of grocery collection for the needy and discuss and develop additional practical suggestions on how to combine efforts to increase and streamline grocery collections. Much interest has been shown in these meetings and the dialogue with various groups and individuals will continue. 

All in all, activities have been successful. Awareness of and involvement in the numerous activities has been good with more participants becoming engaged all the time. We are sure the project will grow from strength to strength and the good work being undertaken will continue into the future. A special word of thanks to all the participants, volunteers, helpers and advisors – for without them the task would be impossible, but with them anything can be done! 

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Come and join a team of adults, teenagers, and parents with children to volunteer in the "Lev Lara'ev" food drive in Ra'anana .

Lev Lara'ev is a voluntary grocery assistance project in Ra'anana, initiated by the South African Zionist Federation - Israel (Telfed).

Lev Lara'ev works with the support of the Municipality of Ra'anana, Telfed, Ilana Bank, Mishne Lechem, the Ra'anana Chessed Committee, Meatland, and Trelidoor. The collected groceries are given to needy residents of Ra'anana.
We're looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help us in the following ways:

 - Giving an hour of your time, once a week, bi-weekly, or monthly, to promote our food drive at supermarkets by handing out flyers to shoppers.
 - If you work for a large or medium-sized company, you could organize a food drive together with your co-workers.
 - Kids4food club: A fun activity for children (and parents): Help your children collect cans of food once a month from family, friends, and neighbours.

We will meet with you personally to tailor the program to the needs of your family. It would be great for your children to have a hands-on Chessed experience!

For more information and details of how you can help, please send an email to max@maxgrunberg.com or call Max at (054)-4953039.

Kind regards,
Barry Hack 
Chairperson, Telfed Ra'anana Regional Committee.