The Passover story is about the Jewish people gaining their freedom from slavery in Egypt. This year, two Jewish groups are connecting the holiday to a campaign to free American children from the bondage of hunger.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger are helping communities around the country hold “child nutrition seders” to raise awareness of the issue of proper childhood nutrition and build support for the reauthorization of congressional legislation providing billions of dollars for federal nutrition programs.
Locally, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley will host a child nutrition seder April 6 at Santa Clara University with students from the Leavy Business School, the Jewish Law Students Association, Hillel and the SCU Interfaith Council, among others. The JCRC also sponsored a seder March 22 that was attended by middle-school students from Yavneh Jewish Day School of Los Gatos and Most Holy Trinity Catholic School in San Jose. And a seder held March 14 at Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, co-hosted by JCPA and Mazon, was dedicated to hunger awareness and childhood nutrition.
A seder focusing on child nutrition “perfectly reflects the message of Passover,” said JCPA executive director Rabbi Steve Gutow, noting that the Haggadah begins with the words “Let any who are hungry come in and eat.”
“It’s a powerful idea to enhance the Passover experience [and] amplify the message of the story,” added Rosalie Licht, project coordinator for Mazon. “We were slaves and now we are free — what are we doing with that freedom?”
It is the second year the two groups have encouraged communities to organize such events, and they have put together a special 27-page Haggadah for the service that includes the traditional blessings along with English readings that reflect the child nutrition theme. The Haggadah is online at www.jewishpublicaffairs.org/Hagaddah.
For instance, along with the blessing for karpas, or the green vegetable, the Haggadah notes that low-income families often eschew buying fresh fruits and vegetables in favor of less expensive packaged foods. The Four Questions have been converted into four queries about hunger in America, while the four sons are the “four faces of childhood hunger” and how they benefit from federal government nutrition assistance.
JCPA says at least 40 seders are planned in more than 30 communities across the United States — taking place before, during and after the holiday; in some communities it will be a theme for a second-night seder.
In addition to raising awareness of the issue, the seder is designed to build support for the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act. The legislation funds all federal school meal and child nutrition programs, including the school breakfast and lunch programs and the WIC program — which provides food, education and access to health care to low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children younger than 5.
JCPA and Mazon are urging Congress to allocate at least $1 billion in additional funding for each of the next five years in addition to the $21.9 billion that went toward the federal programs in the last fiscal year. Each special Haggadah includes information on the legislation, as well as a sample letter to send to members of Congress.
Gutow said it is necessary to teach that while direct service to help the hungry — canned food drives, helping at soup kitchens — is important, learning and using advocacy skills that can help feed millions of Americans is essential.
And by making sure children are involved and learning that advocacy message, said Licht, a “long-term sustainability” on the issues of poverty and hunger is being built.
Gutow said the dozens of seders in the works demonstrate that fighting hunger and poverty message is a key priority of many in the Jewish community, and that these tough economic times make it even more resonant.
“Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat” seder will be held 7 p.m. April 6 at Santa Clara University. Free. Seating is limited; RSVP by Wednesday, March 31, at www.scu.edu/events or by contacting Ilana Eydus, Mazon Hunger Fellow, at (408) 674-4315 or [email protected].
Eric Fingerhut is a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C. He is a former JTA and Washington Jewish Week correspondent.