In the run up to Shavuos, GIFT, arranged for over 2000 children in schools and nurseries across London, Manchester and Liverpool to bring in one flower to school. Schools that took part included – Edgware JPS, Kerem School and nursery, Danescroft Nursery, Clore Shalom School, Hasmonean High and Akiva. Each class made up bouquets of flowers which were distributed to families in need and old age homes for the Festival. GIFT was overwhelmed by the response. Joanna Walker, Deputy Head of Sinai School was particularly delighted to participate in this initiative. 'Joanna told us - It's so important to enrol children in acts of kindness. GIFT's flower initiative was such a lovely way to get children involved in helping others and making a difference at the same time!' This is one of GIFT's many projects encouraging, educating and inspiring people in the community to get involved in the social action.
MACCABI COMMUNITY FUN RUN
A fantastic event with over 1000 runners raising £100,000 for 35 charities. GIFT would like to thank its 50 runners for taking part...raising over £4000.
LECHEM ONI 2011
GIFT's Annual Lechem Oni appeal proved, once again, to be a massive success. Many hundreds of people descended on the GIFT Warehouse in Golders Green on the Thursday and Sunday prior to Pesach to donate their surplus Chometz, whilst many volunteers, of all ages, came to sort the food. The Community was delighted that GIFT was yet again providing this service, enabling people to get rid of their Chometz before Pesach without having to dispose of it. Over a tonne of food, ranging from cereals, pasta, pulses, crackers, flour, nush, soft drinks, liquors, whiskey, beer etc was collected and sold through the Beth Din over the duration of Pesach and will be given out after Pesach to those in need .
Prior to Pesach, GIFT distributed almost a thousand Kosher for Pesach food parcels containing wine, grapejuice and the essentials for the Seder and the duration of Pesach, generously donated by members of the Community; from money donated through the Jenny Morhaim Appeal, in addition to the food collected through the Pesach GIFT Boxes. Food was also distributed from the GIFT Boxes by volunteers, throughout Pesach.
GIFT would sincerely like to thank all those who took part in Lechem Oni, whether bringing food or volunteering and also to all those who donated Kosher Le Pesach food through the Pesach GIFT Boxes.
In addition to the yearly Lehem Oni and Post Purim Food Appeals, GIFT's weekly food rescue and distribution projects currently provide food for over 1000 people each week. Additionally, GIFT works with schools, youth groups and chadorim, encouraging, educating and inspiring hundreds of volunteers to take part in acts of giving.
To donate or volunteer for GIFT please email info@jgift.org or call 02084574429.
POST PURIM FOOD APPEAL
£20,000 of suplus Mishloach Manot collected by GIFT!
GIFT's Annual Post Purim Food Collection proved, once again, to be a tremendous success. More than six hundred people walked through the GIFT warehouse laden with food baskets; gift packages and crates of wine - a constant stream of people flowed from 9.30am until 6pm the day after Purim. In excess of two hundred and fifty young volunteers, aged 5 upwards helped unpack the food, sort the 'mountains' of boxes & bars of chocolates, wines, tins of fruit, platters of beautifully arranged dried fruit; heaps of packets of biscuits, crisps, sweets, unopened baskets of Mishloach Manot etc, which were sorted and packed up into around 250 boxes, weighing over 2.5 tonnes. Most of the food will be distributed to local families, struggling to make ends meet; food will be distributed to a Norwood Outings' group for disadvantaged children; a local Jewish women's refuge and Norwood clubs and centres providing respite for parents of disabled children. Most of the loose sweets and chocolates are being distributed amongst Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. There are very few kosher shops in Eastern Europe and the children there now look forward to receiving these boxes each year with huge excitement.
People bringing their surplus Mishloach Manot could not thank us enough for providing this service. Enthusiastic volunteers helped pack boxes – some working without a break for 7 hours. Volunteer Jonny Cooper, aged 6 and his friends, volunteered for most of the day, they told us 'we wanted to give our sweets to children who might not get and then we came across the GIFT advert - It was a really fun and worthwhile experience helping out today – packing boxes for children who don't get to eat kosher sweets and food for families who are finding things very difficult. We had a great day and got to make such a difference!'
This is the sixth year that GIFT has successfully run this post-Purim Mishloach Manot collection.
GIFT would like to thank the entire Community for their support especially to those who collected money for GIFT during Purim raising much needed funds. GIFT will again be running its Lechem Oni Appeal before Pesach. Chametz can be dropped into the GIFT Warehouse, 2B The Grove, Golders Green, NW11 9SH on the 14th and 17th April. The Chametz will be sold before Pesach through the Beth Din and will be distributed to local families after Pesach. To volunteer your time or money please contact the GIFT Office on 0208 457 4429 or email info@jgift.org. GIFT was started up 7 years ago and exists in order to encourage, educate and promote giving amongst young Jews in the Community.
SPIEL FACTOR 2011
Thousands benefit from Spiel Factor 2011
Fire-eating jugglers, actors dressed as if from Chelm, mutli-talented acrobats and 3 year old singing prodigies were among the entertainers of this year's Spiel Factor 2011. Over 250 guests, dressed as vampires, fairies, punks, goats, princesses and pirates packed Hendon Shul Community Centre. Not only was a huge amount of talent exposed at this year's Spiel Factor, but over £30,000 was raised for 25 different charities at the giant Purim Seuda. This year's event chose proceeds of the dinner and brochure to benefit local charity GIFT, a grassroots organisation encouraging and educating children in the value of 'giving' and helping those in need. Michelle Barnett, GIFT director, was delighted with the outcome and overwhelmed by people's generosity, in addition to the energy, stamina and creativity of those raising money for GIFT throughout the day.
Hosting and organising the event, Paul and Stephanie Freud, together with Alison and Jeremy Kanter felt that by awarding a monetary incentive to spielers over Purim, this would encourage a higher quality of act. Money was collected from generous philanthropists in the community and the winning performances were awarded £2500 and £1000 respectively for a charity of their choice.
Winners, by an overwhelming majority were Hasmonean sixth formers;Eli Shebson, Sam Baum, Rafi Stemmer, Akiva Zneimer & Avi Mocton performing a colourful and up-beat dance-routine for the GM Trust, a Hendon based charity raising awareness and researching a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Runners up were singers, juggling and dancing performers Didimen, raising money for charities Camp Kef & Chana.
Each act walked around the tables with collection buckets following their performance, raising thousands for their chosen charity. Last year's winners, 4 Lerer brothers, aged 3 to 8, singing their own rendition of The Maccabeats, collected over £2,300 for GIFT. Other charities benefitting from the evening, included Kisharon, Hatzoloh, Menorah Grammer School and Camp Simcha.
HASMO GIRLS MAKE BRACELETS FOR TIKVA ORPHANAGE
As part of their community enrichment programme in conjunction with GIFT, year 9 Hasmonean Girls learnt about the Tikva Orphanage in Odessa, wrote cards and made bracelets for the children
GIFT’S TU BISHVAT INITIATIVE IS ‘FRUITFUL’ AND MULTIPLIES!
Over 5600 children from over 35 London Jewish primary, secondary schools and nurseries took part in GIFT’s Tu Bishvat initiative aimed at making a difference and helping people in need over the Festival. Each child was asked to bring one fruit into school. Classes then made up fruit baskets which were distributed by tens of volunteers. Over 300 baskets of fruit were distributed within the community for Shabbat. Schools and nurseries participating in this initiative included Hertsmere Primary School, Independent Jewish Day School, Menorah Foundation; Beis Yaakov Primary, Nancy Reuben Primary School, Danescroft Nursery, Torat Emet, Morasha, Stars Nursery Cockfosters, Simon Marks, Hasmonean High School, Gilah Nursery Borehamwood, Little Gems Nursery Stanmore, Torah Vedaas, Torah Temima, Dollis Hill, Menorah Grammar School, Kisharon, Yavneh College, Pardes House, Gan Yachad Nursery, Ilford Jewish Primary School, Rosh Pinah, Pinner Nursery, Sharon nursery, Muswell Hill Nursery, Naima Primary School, St Johns Wood Nursery, Beginnings Early Childhood Centre and Immanuel College.
The baskets were distributed to local families in need, the Jewish Women’s Refuge, Jewish Blind and Disabled residents, Rela Goldhill Jewish Care Home and old age homes.
This initiative is exactly what GIFT is all about – illustrating how each child, by contributing just one fruit, together can make such a difference. We, at GIFT, were overwhelmed by the support from the schools and by the response from the children. The baskets, which were also so professionally decorated by the children, with plastic and wrapping, were delightful.’
GIFT, founded 6 years ago, is an independent charity which educates, inspires and facilitates people in the community to ‘give’ of themselves, through its innovative community initiatives.
Hasmo Girls "blossom" at Ella & Ridley Jacobs House
The week of Tu Bishvat, GIFT arranged a special trip to Ella & Ridley Jacobs House in Hendon for Hasmonean girls year 9 as part of their Community Support scheme. The girls brought in flowers, sang and danced with the residents, who were delighted with the Tu Bishvat treat. The girls have opted to contribute to the community as part of their enrichment studies. They have also packed food from GIFT BOXes for local families in need.
Sinai Youth Organisation stood outside toy shops over Chanukah and collected toys that were distributed to local families and orphanages in Israel.
Bat Mitzva Girls make a difference!
Batsheva Golker and Rikki Yellon made a difference by encouraging and facilitating their Bat Mitzvah guests to make name plaques and mezzuzah cases for the bedroom doors of children of Neve Michael’s orphanage.
MITZVAH DAY 2010
David Cameron applauds the efforts of Mitzvah Day organisers as 17,000 Jews give a day, Sunday 21th November, to support numerous good causes.
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, expressed his support for Mitzvah Day in a message released this week – ‘National Mitzvah Day again has been a fabulous success…Thousands of people have come together, given their time and effort for the benefit of communities around our country.’ Being run across the UK for the second year, the 250 Mitzvah day events organised by over 150 Jewish organisations took part as far a field as Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Oxford and Glasgow as well as all around London.
The good causes benefiting ranged from cleaning up cemeteries; WJR family packathon, sending clothes to those in need in the Ukraine; singing at old age homes and room make-overs in hospitals.
Local Tzedoka GIFT, arranged volunteers to ‘man’ tens of Jewish shops around London and a number of large supermarkets to collect food for local families in need as well as Jewish Women’s Aid, homeless shelters and other charities. On this one day alone over 2000 people donated more than 2 tonnes of food, which was collected and distributed, with the help of hundreds of young volunteers, from different schools ie Immanuel College, Hasmonean and IJDS, youth groups, synagogues and communities around London.
Raleigh Close Shul in conjunction with Bnei Akiva and GIFT, ran a packathon on the morning of Mitzva Day, packing up over a tonne of fresh vegetables, surplus to supermarkets, which were sorted, packed up and delivered to families in need; and Chigwell and Edgware United Shul were involved in packing up the food collected. Michelle Barnett, GIFT director told The JC - “Mitzvah Day shows the Jewish community at its best. In these difficult economic times, it is a useful reminder that you don’t need lots of money to make a real difference to people lives – this is charity work for credit crunch times.” Mitzvah Day UK Chair and Founder, Laura Marks, added: “On Mitzvah Day we don’t ask for cash - we ask for time.
It’s amazing what a difference we can make to someone else by donating just a few hours. We have projects for everyone and it has been the most rewarding day of the year for all those who took part.” GIFT is a young volunteer organisation seeking to promote chessed in the community. GIFT distributes food on a weekly basis to over 1000 people locally, in addition to a number of other community initiatives, which can be seen on the GIFT website - www.jgift.org. To volunteer you time or money contact michelle@jgift.org
BEN RAISES MONEY FOR GIFT
8 Year old Ben Sinclair held a sweet shop sale in June and October 2010 for GIFT, selling sweets, pancakes and pocorn outside the house. He raised a total of £161.01.
COMMUNITY FUN RUN 2010
On 23rd May, 50 young people ran for GIFT at the Maccabi Community Fun Run at Haberdashers Boys’ School, raising over £5000 for GIFT
SHAVOUT 2010
The day prior to Shavuot, GIFT, arranged for children in schools and nurseries across London to bring in one flower to school.
Each class made up bouquets of flowers which were distributed to families in need for the Festival.
GIFT was overwhelmed by the response. Mrs Nemeth of Hasmonean High School and Alison Mazin, headteacher of Danescroft Nursery, Hendon were particularly delighted to participate in this initiative.
‘ Alison told us - It’s so important to enrol children in acts of kindness. GIFT’s flower initiative was such a lovely way to get children involved in helping others and making a difference at the same time!’
In this picture children from Danescroft Nursery Hendon, with the flowers that they brought in to make a difference to families in need and the elderly.
PURIM & PESACH 2010
£30,000 worth of food collected through GIFT’s Post PURIM and LECHEM ONI projects
For the 6th year running, GIFT has seized the opportunity to reduce the amount of food disposed of after Purim and prior to Pesach. The ‘Lechem Oni’ project involves the collection of unopened chometz food products the week prior to Pesach; storing the food; selling it through the London Beth Din and redistributing it to local Jewish families struggling to make ends meet. This year, once again over six hundred members of the community brought bags and boxes filled with cereal, crackers, pasta, flour, cakes, biscuits, wines etc to the GIFT distribution centre in Golders Green. Over 5 tonnes of food have been collected from the Post Purim collection and the lechem oni collection, with almost 400 young volunteers giving their time to help with the collection, sorting and packing. 9 year old triplets Bezalel and Adina Gluck volunteered for most of the day and were thrilled to give their time to help.
OVER 1500 CHILDREN PARTICIPATE IN GIFT TU BISHVAT INITIATIVE
For the second year running, over 1500 children from over 7 London Jewish primary and secondary schools took part in GIFT’s Tu Bishvat initiative aimed at making a difference and helping families in need over the Festival. Each child was asked to bring one fruit into school. Classes then made up fruit baskets which were distributed by tens of volunteers in time for Tu Bishvat. Almost 100 baskets of fruit were distributed within the community. Schools participating in this initiative included Hertsmere Primary School, Independent Jewish Day School, Menorah Foundation; Noam Primary School; Beis Yaakov Primary and Secondary schools; Nancy Reuben Primary School and North West Jewish Day School.
GIFT Director, Michelle Barnett told the Jewish Chronicle ‘This initiative is exactly what GIFT is all about – illustrating how each child, by contributing just one fruit, together can make such a difference. We were overwhelmed by the support from the schools and by the response from the children. The baskets, which were also so professionally decorated by the children, with plastic and wrapping, were delightful.’
On Sunday, in honour of Tu Bishvat, GIFT organized a group visit to Kay Court, an old age home in Golders Green. Volunteers sang and performed for residents and brought them flowers and plants to brighten up their rooms.
GIFT, founded 5 years ago, is a London-based charity which educates, inspires and facilitates people in the community to be ‘givers’, through its innovative community initiatives.
To volunteer your time or money click on www.jgift.org
AMIT CHANUKAH 2009
website - www.jgift.org. To volunteer you time or money contact michelle@jgift.org
Mitzvah Day 2009
GIFT takes the lead on Mitzvah Day
Tony Blair applauds the efforts of Mitzvah Day organisers as 15,000 Jews give a day, Sunday 15th November, to support numerous good causes.
The former prime minister expressed his support for Mitzvah Day in a video message released ahead of Sunday's initiative. Being run across the UK for the second year, the 250 Mitzvah day events organised by over 150 Jewish organisations took part as far a field as Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Oxford and Glasgow as well as all around London.
The good causes benefiting ranged from cleaning up cemeteries; WJR family packathon, sending clothes to those in need in the Ukraine; singing at old age homes and room make-overs in hospitals.
Local Tzedoka GIFT, arranged for shops around London to collect food for local families in need as well as Jewish Women’s Aid and other charities. On this one day alone over 1000 people donated more than a tonne of food, which was collected and distributed, with the help of over 100 young GIFT volunteers. Michelle Barnett, GIFT director told The JC - “Mitzvah Day shows the Jewish community at its best. In these difficult economic times, it is a useful reminder that you don’t need lots of money to make a real difference to people lives – this is charity work for credit crunch times.” Mitzvah Day UK Chair and Founder, Laura Marks, added: “On Mitzvah Day we don’t ask for cash - we ask for time. It’s amazing what a difference we can make to someone else by donating just a few hours. We have projects for everyone and it has been the most rewarding day of the year for all those who took part.”
Lady J joined the GIFT shopping project, with words of encouragement for the volunteers as she bought some healthy items of food, placing them in the GIFT BOX in Kays Store in Golders Green. Lady J remarked – ‘I’m proud to be able to participate in such an important Mitzvah on this special day’.
GIFT is a young volunteer organisation seeking to promote chessed in the community. GIFT distributes food on a weekly basis to over 1000 people locally, in addition to a number of other community initiatives, which can be seen on the GIFT website - www.jgift.org. To volunteer you time or money contact michelle@jgift.org
Warehouse Distribution Centre Launch
Scrap Head Challenge
The scraps heap challenge
8:17am Friday 5th September 2008
By Tomasz Johnson
As the urgency of recycling waste hits home, more and more people have begun to sift out plastic bottles, paper, cans and even shoes and batteries from their rubbish.
The need to recycle these products to end our reliance on landfill has been drummed home by the Government, local authorities and environmental charities.
If residents play by the rules — and those who don’t can incur fines of up to £1,000 — all that remains in household bins is a diminishing pot of products that cannot be recycled by Barnet Council.
But the irony is that the most recyclable of all materials is the one most likely to be left behind.
Last year the council conducted three waste audits from a sample of 300 households across the borough. On all three occassions, 30 per cent of what was found in residents’ rubbish bins was kitchen and garden waste.
Food and garden waste can be collected in a separate green bin, to be shredded, baked at 60 degrees for three weeks, and left to decompose in the open for ten weeks to create compost.
But most of it isn’t. In the last year 30,000 tonnes of kitchen and garden waste went to landfill.
While composting rates are dramatically improving — they have almost quadrupled in the last five years — in the last year only 17,876 tonnes were composted.
Councillor Andrew Harper, cabinet member for the environment, said: ”No one likes to see food waste going to waste when it can be used more naturally and effectively, but Barnet does much better than most.
“We have residents who want to play their part and the council has responded by making the facilities available. We will continue to do that.”
The huge financial and environmental consequences of sending food waste to landfill are driving this political will.
Last year, bioedegradable waste in landfill contributed 40 per cent of the UK’s methane emissions, a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Landfill tax shot up to £32 per tonne in the last budget, so at the current rate kitchen and garden waste going to landfill from Barnet will cost the taxpayer around £1 million.
And the embarrassing fact that our society is wasting so much edible food has also shot to the top of the agenda.
At July’s G8 summit in Japan, Gordon Brown urged Britons to cut down on the estimated 4.1m tonnes of food wasted annually.
But the offenders are not just residents who discard food that has gone off in their fridges. Supermarkets have been lambasted both for their role in encouraging excessive food shopping and for dumping an estimated 1.6m tonnes of food a year that is past its sell-by date, according to the Sustainable Development Commission.
A Hendon charity has also identified another offender. Gift, based in Hendon Way, redistributes tens of thousands of loaves of bread from bakeries every year that would otherwise go to landfill.
Ophira Starr, project manager of Gift, said: “There are bakeries that have piles and piles of bread and pastries and they just throw it all away.
“We collect sacks of it from them, gather it all in one house and make it up into food parcels.”
The charity collected five tonnes of surplus food from the Jewish community this year alone.
“It goes to homeless shelters, refugees and poor families who we identify through word of mouth and social organisations,” said Ms Starr.
“Each parcel is worth about £10 and you can imagine what impact that can have on a weekly food budget for a poor family.”
When she asked bakeries why they consistently overproduced, Miss Starr was told it was in case there was a surprise increase in demand.
Miss Starr added: “We like to think they’re producing one lot of bread for paying customers and another for people who need it but can’t afford it. If they produce too much, it’s better for us.”
GIFT PESACH BOX
‘GIFT PESACH BOX’ will be helping feed 1000 people over Pesach
GIFT launched its new GIFT PESACH BOX initiative in 20 shops and schools around London, in time for Pesach shoppers to participate in this innovative scheme.
Following on from the successful GIFT BOX project, whereby £5000 worth of food is collected by volunteers each week from GIFT food boxes; GIFT placed 20 bright yellow food boxes in shops and schools around Hendon, Golders Green, Stamford Hill, Essex, Edgware, Willesden & Borehamwood. The 120 litre GIFT PESACH BOX in Kosher Paradise, Temple Fortune, was already overflowing a day after it was delivered, with food worth hundreds of pounds. Rikki Kopfstein, manager of the store, told us: ‘Customers have been extremely generous and have been putting in a number of items at a time. One customer told us that it is not often you can give charity knowing that 100% of your donation is going directly to help families in need. This really is Giving Made Easy!”
North West London Jewish Day School was just one of the schools who requested a GIFT PESACH BOX some weeks ago and delivered it back today, on the last day of term, with hundreds of items of Kosher-le-Pesach food.
Tens of volunteers, mainly school children, having broken up, came straight from school, emptied the GIFT PESACH BOXES and spent the afternoon packing up hundreds of bags of food and wine.
More Volunteers helped to distribute the food to over 100 families in the community before and during Pesach.
Coming soon – GIFT BOX in Manchester, Leeds & Liverpool… watch this space!!
Lechem Oni 2009
Over the past five years, we at GIFT have seized the opportunity to reduce the amount of food disposed of prior to Pesach. Our ‘Lechem Oni’ project involves the collection of unopened chometz food products the week prior to Pesach; storing the food; selling it through the London Beth Din and distributing it to local Jewish families as well as financially disadvantaged Jewish communities abroad after Pesach. On the Sunday prior to Pesach, over 300 members of the community brought bags and boxes filled with cereal, crackers, pasta, flour, cakes, biscuits, wines etc to our drop off point. Over 3000kg of food was collected on this one day alone, with 100 young volunteers giving their time to help with the collection, sorting and packing.
Jeremy Seeff - independently volunteered to stand outside Sainsbury’s on Sunday encouraging shoppers to buy extra items for those in need. An impressive 500 items were collected. 40 boxes of food were donated on the day to a local refuge centre. Thank you Jeremy !
A group of dedicated volunteers including Alex Shpektor, Shimon Levy, Yehoshua Levkovitz, Gabi Teller, Tony Cohen, Yaakov Tatz and David Anwar volunteered their time and drove with a truck to Dulwich to collect over 3000 items including food, wine and toiletries donated to GIFT.
Special thanks goes to the following volunteers who stayed the entire day: David Mansoor, Hayley Levinthal, the great Toby, Ella Marchant, Sheera, Nechama Laufer and sister, Yona and Amalya Greenwood, Zoe Issacs, Hanna Fhina. Apologies to others we may have forgotten to mention (apologies) – huge thanks for MAKING A DIFFERENCE !
Purim 2009
£10,000 of suplus Mishloach Monos collected and redistributed by GIFT!
GIFT’s Annual Post Purim Food Collection proved, once again, to be a tremendous success. Almost five hundred people walked through the Aish building laden with food baskets; gift packages and crates of wine - a constant stream of people flowed from 10am until 4pm on both days of the collection. Almost two hundred young volunteers, aged 7 upwards helped unpack the food, sort the 'mountains' of boxes & bars of chocolates, wines, tins of fruit, platters of beautifully arranged dried fruit; heaps of packets of biscuits, crisps, sweets, unopened baskets of Mishloach Monos etc, which were sorted and packed up into around 200 boxes, weighing over 2 tonnes. Most of the food will be distributed to local families, struggling to make ends meet; food has also been distributed to a Norwood Outings group for disadvantaged children from Stamford Hill; a local Jewish women's refuge and Norwood clubs and centres providing respite for parents of disabled children. Most of the loose sweets and chocolates are being distributed amongst Jewish communities in Pinsk; Moscow and Kiev; and will be sent abroad over the next few weeks accompanying groups of students on these trips. There are no kosher shops in Pinsk and the children there now look forward to receiving these boxes each year with huge excitement.
People bringing their surplus Mishloach Monos could not thank us enough for providing this service. Enthusiastic volunteers helped pack boxes – some working without a break for 7 hours. Volunteer Rikki Hai from Menorah High and her friends, volunteered for most of the day, they told us ‘we wanted to give our nush to children who might not get and then we came across the GIFT advert - It was a really fun and worthwhile experience helping out today – packing boxes for children who don’t get to eat kosher sweets and food for families who are finding things very difficult.’ We had a great day and got to make such a difference’!
This is the fifith year that GIFT has successfully run this post-Purim Mishloach Manot collection. The community was informed of this innovative project through flyers to most of the Jewish schools, shuls, shops, restaurants & Jewish newspapers.
OVER 1500 CHILDREN PARTICIPATE IN GIFT TU BISHVAT INITIATIVE
Over 1500 children from over 10 London Jewish primary and secondary schools, nurseries and cheders took part in GIFT’s Tu Bishvat initiative aimed at making a difference and helping families in need over the Festival. Each child was asked to bring one fruit into school. Classes then made up fruit baskets which were distributed by tens of volunteers in time for Tu Bishvat. Over 100 baskets of fruit were distributed within the community. Schools participating in this initiative included Beis Yaakov Primary and Secondary schools, Hasmonean, Hertsmere, Yavneh College, Independent Jewish Day School, Danescroft Nursery, New North London and South Hampstead Cheders. GIFT Director, Michelle Barnett told the Jewish News ‘This initiative is exactly what GIFT is all about – illustrating how each child, by contributing just one fruit, together can make such a difference. We were overwhelmed by the support from the schools and by the response from the children. The baskets, which were also so professionally decorated by the children, with plastic and wrapping, were delightful.’
Tu bishvat – old age home
Volunteers from Hasmonean Girls’School visited old age home on Sunday for Tu Bshvat– arranged that they buy 40 flower pots for residents. They gave each resident flowers whilst chatting to them. Residents were delighted !!
The money for the flowers to be raised by girls selling raffle tickets to neighbours, relatives and family friends.
This is the beginning of an initiative to get school girls to visit this particular home once a month. They will be an ‘old age committee’ and be planning a monthly theme together with GIFT to present to residents
TOYS DISTRIBUTED IN TIME FOR CHANUKAH
In December 300 presents were wrapped by over 80 students at Hasmonean Girls’ School during their lunch hour and distributed to local families and organisations for Chanukah, including over 50 toys to Jewish Women’s Aid.
150 new toys were donated to the Tikva Orphanage in Odessa, which houses over 260 children from newborn to 17 years. 25 students from JFS School took these toys to Odessa as part of a social action trip.
Mitzvah Day 2008
GIFT takes the lead on Mitzvah Day
The Chief Rabbi was among 11,000 Jews who gave a day of their time to support numerous good causes on Sunday 16th November.
Being run across the UK for the first time, the 250 Mitzvah day events organised by over 150 Jewish organisations took part as far a field as Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Oxford and Glasgow as well as all around London.
The good causes benefiting ranged from pushing wheelchairs for ex-servicemen at AJEX, WJR family packathon, sending clothes to those in need in the Ukraine; singing at old age homes and room make-overs in hospitals.
Local charity GIFT, arranged for over 20 shops around London to collect food for local families in need as well as Jewish Women’s Aid and other charities. On this one day alone over 1000 people donated over a tonne of food, which was collected and distributed, with the help of over 100 young GIFT volunteers. Michelle Barnett, GIFT director told the Jewish Chronicle - “Mitzvah Day shows the Jewish community at its best.
In these difficult economic times, it is a useful reminder that you don’t need lots of money to make a real difference to people lives – this is charity work for credit crunch times.” Mitzvah Day UK Chair and Founder, Laura Marks, added: “On Mitzvah Day we don’t ask for cash - we ask for time. It’s amazing what a difference we can make to someone else by donating just a few hours. We have projects for everyone and it has been the most rewarding day of the year for all those who took part.”
GIFT is a grassroots, independent volunteer organisation whose purpose is to encourage and promote a culture of giving and volunteering amongst young people in the community. GIFT activities include delivering bread and food to people in need, visiting the elderly and sick, helping disadvantaged children, school education schemes and charity fundraising
Supper Quiz - 2008
Over £6000 was raised on 13th July around the country through GIFT’s ‘Supper Quiz With A Difference’. 20 hosts around the UK – from London up to Glasgow chose to host a GIFT supper quiz, charging their guests and donating the money to a charity of their own choice. Charities benefitting from this original idea included Laniado Hospial in Netanya, Ezer North West, Zichron Menachem, the Borehamwood Eruv, Tomchai Shabbas, Achisomach, Yad Eliezer and Migdal Ohr orphanages in Israel. Nina Forman, of Golders Green, whose supper quiz raised over £1000 for the GM Trust, told us that it was an excellent way to raise money in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. The winning team made up of 13 Hasmonean 6th formers, hosted by Naomi Ebert and Atara Feld were delighted to receive prizes including meals in local kosher restaurants, manicures, flower bouquets and jewellery, all generously donated by local businesses.
Zichron Menachem - 2008
On July 23rd , GIFT, together with Hasmonean School, co-hosted an evening for Zichron Menachem (250 Israeli kids with terminal illnesses). The children were entertained with inflatables, clowns, jugglers and a sumptuous Bar-b-q. Over 200 vounteers from Hasmonean and GIFT chatted to, helped and entertained the children. Presents were also handed out to all the children.
Purim 2008 - Sunday 23rd March
Over the two days Bank Holiday following Purim, around five hundred people walked through the Aish building in Hendon, laden with food baskets; gift packages and crates of wine - a constant stream of people flowed from 10am until 6pm on both days. Over two hundred young volunteers, aged 7 upwards helped unpack the food, sort the 'mountains' of boxes & bars of chocolates, wines, tins of fruit, platters of beautifully arranged dried fruit; heaps of packets of biscuits, crisps, sweets, unopened baskets of Mishloach Monos etc, which were packed up into around 200 boxes. Most of the 'good' food has been distributed to local families and families in Stamford Hill, the rest of the food is being distributed amongst communities in Pinsk; Moscow; Poland, Sderot; IDF; Jewish students in London who cannot afford to buy kosher food; a Norwood Outings group for disadvantaged Stamford Hill children; Old Age Homes and Jewish Blind & Disabled Homes around London; Chai Cancer Care; Clubhouse; Lubavitch communites in far out places; a local Jewish women's refuge and Norwood clubs and centres providing respite for parents of disabled children.
The people bringing their surplus Mishloach Manot could not thank us enough for providing this service. Enthusiastic volunteers helped pack boxes – some working without a break for 10 hours. Young volunteer Uri Shine, aged 8, who was told us ‘It was really fun packing boxes for children who have never seen kosher sweets before.’
This is the fourth year that GIFT has successfully run this post-Purim Mishloach Manot collection. The community was informed of this innovative project through flyers to most of the Jewish schools, shuls, shops, restaurants; Jewish newspapers, Facebook and jewpro.
Global Awareness Day - On 8th July 2007
GIFT held a Global Awareness Day in Hendon, collecting clothes for Israel and Eastern Europe; shoes for Africa and toys for needy kids worldwide. The response was phenomenal - members of the community flocked - very grateful to be able to get rid of their unwanted clothes, shoes etc to such a good cause – we received almost 200 black bags full of clothes, shoes & toys – over 1000 kilos were collected, sorted and have been delivered to World Jewish Relief, for Jewish communities in eastern Europe as well as the Jewish Cultural Centre, for needy families around Israel .
World Jewish Relief came in to speak about the situation in Darfur and we also heard about Aish’s work in an orphanage in Soweto, Africa.
New volunteers also signed up for GIFT and WJR. The event was publicised on facebook, edgware k, jewpro, schools and synagogues and flyers around Hendon, Edgware and Golders Green.”
Gift Toy Appeal - On 16th August 2007
More than 4000 toys were sent to children in the North of Israel to bomb shelters and hospitals.
Tsunami Appeal - 2004
In April 2004 GIFT recruited, trained and sent 28 volunteers to tsunami devastated Thailand. They raised over £20K which they distributed to building projects, orphanages and development schemes. As a team they restored, built and refurbished buildings,
furniture and housing development units. The GIFT team also delivered food and
medicines to areas of specific need.
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