Trip to FoodShare- Hands on Lesson on Tzedaka!

One of the values we strive to teach our students is the understanding and appreciation of “Tzedakah.” 

Tzedakah – צדקה – is the Hebrew for a concept that is often translated as charity and involves giving money and help to the poor. “Charity” comes from the Latin root “to care.”  It is something a person does voluntarily. However, the Jewish concept of tzedakah is very different.  The word “tzedakah” comes from a root that means justice. Giving tzedakah is an act of righteousness and a mitzvah, an obligation.

Money is an abstract concept for children, and it will take years for them to completely understand what it means.  We sow the seeds for understanding by explaining what money is for and how we get it.  In the classroom, when we show children what we use money to buy, we can sow the seed and tell them that there are people who don’t have enough money to buy these same things. 

This week our Pre-k Class went on a trip to the FoodShare of Ventura County- as a way to make this Torah teaching a real and relevant part of our childrens lives.

Upon arrival at the Foodshare, the children gave all the coins from our classroom Tzedaka Box!

We learned about the people who founded this wonderful organization, and the reason for it
starting.

We also learned about what types of foods are nutritious, and which types of foods might not be that good for our bodies!

In the warehouse, we saw all the foods that get distributed to people who are not lucky enough to have food in their homes!

In the week leading up to our trip, each of the students brought in canned foods, pasta and other non perishables for our class food-drive! We contributed a total of 53lb of food for the foodshare to distribute !

 After weighing the food that we donated, our whole class had a chance to stand on the grand scale!! All together we weighed a total of 464lb!!

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Lesson on planting!

We planted corn, lettuce and other fresh vegetable!

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE AT VC FOODSHARE for making the time to show us all the good work they do, and for being such a wonderful partner in educating our students!