On May 13th, some of the Tel Aviv crew took a break from our usual routine and left the comfort of our desks (and air conditioning) to get down and dirty in the potato fields of Leket Israel. Leaving the big city life of Tel Aviv in the rear view mirror, the team set out in the wee hours of the morning to dedicate some volunteer time to harvest potatoes for Israel’s National Food Bank.
To our surprise we weren’t half bad at the field work. We picked and gathered around 3 tons of potatoes, helping to feed over 1,500 families!
With some teamwork and friendly competition, we made our way across the field and gained a new appreciation for how challenging – and important – agriculture and farming is in Israel and the world. According to Leket, “A quarter of Israel’s 7.7 million citizens (1.9 million people) are living in poverty; among them are some 850,000 hungry children.” A quick visit to the global Hunger Project website and you see some startling statistics. With a world population of around 7 billion, 870 million people do not have enough to eat. To give you some perspective, that’s more than the populations of the USA and European Union combined!
Organizations, like Leket Israel, work hard to alleviate these problems. Each year, with the help of 45,000 volunteers, Leket Israel rescues over 770,000 meals and 20 million lbs of produce and perishable goods. If you are interested in learning more about how you can help, you can visit their website at http://www.leket.org.il/english/.
Pull up your sleeves and try your hand at working the land! If we can do it – and even have fun in the process – you can surely give it a shot!
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