Dear Congregants,
In March 2020, at the start of the Pandemic, the Bet Torah Caring Committee launched the Shabbat Meal Program. The goal was simple and straightforward: provide a delicious meal and a friendly face to isolated and/or first responder members of Bet Torah, and a means of support for beloved community member, Chef René Leon.
The response was surprising and powerful. Delivering a Shabbat dinner proved to be a critical connection point at a time when people needed it most and gave a sense of doing something – anything – to those who were looking to help. The program also delivered love, connection, friendship, security, and identity.
Participants are members you may know well, recognize as a familiar face, or have never met. Each comes to Shabbat with a unique perspective and experience, day-to-day reality and routine. Circumstances. Struggles. Spirituality. Connection to Judaism. To each other. To Bet Torah.
The Caring Committee has created a video project that captures the voices of the folks who make this program about so much more than food – the recipients, volunteers, donors and other community members, like you. Their stories are shared in part below.