Students from Har Sinai Temple in Pennington donate $5,600 of their Bar and Bat Mitzvah gift money to the Pump Up the Pantry Challenge at Jewish Family & Children’s Service. Back: Jason Friedman (Yardley, Pa.), Gillian Dauer (Lawrenceville), Isaac Stephens (Yardley, Pa.), Robyn Seidman (Lawrenceville) and Rebecca McCormack (Lawrenceville). Front row: Ian Buchsbaum (Lawrenceville) and Benjamin Aronson (Newtown, Pa.).
Rebecca McCormack, Robyn Seidman and Molly Granahan of Lawrenceville shop for food to replenish Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County’s food pantry.
Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County volunteers kicked off the Pump up the Pantry $25,000 Food Pantry Challenge in June.
The kick-off comes on the heels of a pledge by an anonymous donor to match up to $25,000 to support JFCS’s Ohel Avraham food pantry, which has been providing non-perishable food assistance to families in need in the Mercer-Bucks community since 1999.
Nineteen students from Har Sinai Temple in Pennington donated $5,600 to the Food Pantry Challenge. Students from this year’s seventh grade class collectively decided to pool gift money from their bar and bat mitzvahs and donate a portion to the challenge.
In addition to making a donation, the students went shopping for nonperishable foods and then helped stock JFCS’s pantry.
“It was great to see where our money went,” Rebecca McCormack of Lawrence said, “I was surprised to see that the pantry did not have a lot, and it was great to add food to the shelves.”
Following Hurricane Sandy, JCFS saw an increase in food pantry demand. Executive director Linda Meisel hopes money raised through the challenge and funds matched by the anonymous donor will help replenish the pantry.
The agency began a nutrition initiative this year, offering more healthy options including brown rice, frozen vegetables and fish. It also has had the opportunity to provide fresh produce from local farmers markets and plans to offer nutrition workshops, including a healthy cooking class and food safety class, in the future.
JFCS of Greater Mercer County is a community service agency that aims to strengthen individuals and families in the entire community by empowering people to care for themselves and each other.
More information is online at jfcsonline.org.
