Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto recently held its fifth annual community service day, focusing on people who are homeless on the Peninsula.

Second-graders baked desserts for the Thanksgiving meals provided by the Urban Ministry Food Closet in Palo Alto. Fifth-graders collected gently used coats and healthy snacks, which they delivered to the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto. And together, kindergarten and seventh-grade students packed bags of donated socks for Sunnyvale Com-munity Services.

Third-graders Hannah Levitt (left) and Noya Zamir with packages for people in need photo/gideon hausner jewish day school

The fourth-graders made blankets and counted the money raised by Hausner’s Change for Change Drive — $2,500, enabling My New Red Shoes, which provides shoes and clothing to homeless and low-income children, to help 50 children.

Three grades focused on Haven Family House in Menlo Park. First- and third-graders collected and packaged toiletries and school supplies for the homeless shelter, and eighth-graders volunteered there.

The Nov. 16 event included an array of learning opportunities. Second-graders spent time with two volunteers from Downtown Streets Team in Palo Alto to learn about the challenges that homeless people face. And middle-school students heard testimony on the meaning of community service from My-Dung Tran, the director of operations and volunteers at Sunnyvale Community Services.

The day ended with a Kabbalat Shabbat assembly at which students shared their reflections on the meaning of the day and placed a brick representing the volunteer work they had done.