GIFT's initiatives inspire thousands this Purim

This Purim saw one of the busiest and most exciting times for GIFT.

A wonderful collaboration with Seed and Borehamwood Connect encouraged the community to give mishloach manot to friends, neighbours, those shielding as well as those in need. Thousands of individual mishloach manot packages were also made up by GIFT volunteers across London & Manchester and distributed to families supported by GIFT as well as to Jewish Care homes and Norwood service users. 

As the traditional spieling couldn’t take place this year due to lockdown, GIFT launched the 1^st ever online Purim Spiel platform through which the community was invited to showcase their talent, helping raise thousands of pounds for their chosen charities.  28,000+ visits to the GIFT Spiel Factor page were recorded, with over 70 spiels submitted for over 50 different charities, raising much needed funds. The winning spiel with 1,600 likes was in support of a Jewish boarding school in Pinsk, winning £3,000 for the charity. 

GIFT Israel ran a well-attended England-Israel bake-off, where participants were treated to a free humantashen baking class. 

GIFT’s Matanot Le’evyonim text code gave the community the opportunity, through one simple text, to perform the wonderful act of giving to those in need on Purim day and hundreds donated through this medium. 

Finally, but incredibly, thousands of pounds worth of surplus mishloach manot together with much needed staple food items were once again donated by the community to GIFT at their food drive on the Sunday after Purim, with collection points across London and Manchester. 

Michelle Barnett, GIFT’s Founding Director told us, “We were delighted with the response to our food drive and are hugely grateful to the community for their generosity."

GIFT has seen a 40% increase in referrals to its food bank since lockdown and is appealing to the community’s generosity for food donations. For those who missed this opportunity, GIFT is again holding a pre-Pesach food collection on the Sunday prior to Pesach, 21st March, at various locations across London & Manchester (www.jgift.org for more information).