Mitzvah Project Bears Fruit
Sours: The Jewish Exponent
Deborah Hirsch writes in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent about the Ramah Day Camp Communal Produce Garden Project. The project started out five years ago as a 400 square feet patch of land for day campers to use in their nature program. Today it has become 10,000-square-foot source of produce for low-income families and seniors struggling with food insecurity, yielding more than 1,300 pounds of produce for the Mitzvah Food Project and area meal- delivery programs.
Twice a week over the last summer, each of the 260 campers took part in planting, weeding and watering the sprawling patches of vegetables. Several of them returned with their Hebrew school classes this fall to harvest the crops.
The Ramah project is part of a national trend to grow food for the needy. Locally, it is among a handful of Jewish communal gardens that have cropped up in the past few years to support hunger-relief efforts throughout the region.