USY Group 4 - connecting to the land and going to the dogs

USYers Picking tomatoes

 So today started well with USY Group 4 (1st Departure, Poland).  Shakshuka for breakfast at Agron, followed by a trip to a field between Hulda and Rehovot to pick tomatoes with Leket Yisrael.  Leket Yisrael (formerly Table to Table) is the largest food recovery and distribution organization in Israel.  They enlist approximately 30,000 volunteers a year, including us, to help pick fruit and vegetables that might otherwise go to waste be unharvested due to market prices being too low or size or color making them difficult to sell.  Unfortunately the enthusiasm for the vision of the Mitzvah hero who founded Table to Table, Joseph Gitler, doesn't seem to be shared by the staff "in the field" (literally) and the passion of the staff members from Leket we encountered in its early years (they're only about 7 or 8 years old) is not found in the staff people we encounter now.  It was a beastly hot day, and while we did pick about 300 kilograms of Tomatoes (which will feed about 100 families within the next 48 hours or so) we only lasted about 40 minutes in the field and the staff was not as well organized as past programs have been.  Still, we made our points about eradicating hunger, the biblical direction to leave gleanings in the field for the less fortunate in our community and connecting to the land.

A puppy in the kennel for training

Noah Braun

We then continued to Beit Oved to visit the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind.  Fortunately, founder and Mitzvah hero Noach Braun was there to greet us and was able to speak to the group, though we were unable to play with the puppies due to a sever allergy to dogs by one of the participants.  As luck would have it, Leah Zebovitz, daughter of our friends Tammy and Steve Zebovitz, was volunteering in the kennels and I got to see her.  I've stopped being surprised by who I run into in Israel.  We didn't have the best volunteer guide, and she really didn't understand our reasons for bringing the group there, but Noach was there and we filled in where necessary.  The IGDCB provides trained guide dogs to blind and vision impaired people at not cost, and currently they breed, raise and train their own dogs, at a cost of about $25,000 each, and they provide about 45 dogs a year.  As Israel doesn't have as developed a culture of house pets as the US, it seems to be taking a while to convince many Israelis of the love and utility of bringing a guide dog into their lives.  They report they are able to keep up with the demand for guide dogs at present.

I packed my own lunch today (turkey breast and a couple of plums) because I've learned not to rely on a USY box lunch.  Danny and I finished the day by taking a quick tour of Har Homa while taking Arnie home, and just going out for a quick burger at Burgers Bar (this time I managed to finish my 150 gm burger).  Not much else to report.  Tomorrow afternoon I head east to see Mitzvah hero Libby Reichman, formerly of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Israel, maybe stop by the Gush Etzion Winery and who knows what else along the way.

Lehitra'ot for tonight.