(L-R) Kira Denham, Eden Zimmerman, Coen Zimmerman, Zev Schulman, Sammy Nudell and Willow Danowitz In back is ‘Jungle Jay’ Hardman.
Teens participating in the community service and Jewish values program “Better to Serve” on Sunday, March 26 took part in a project tending the fruit and vegetable “Refugee Garden.”
The program was a three way partnership of the Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast, Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Clearwater.
The teens worked in the garden located at the Unitarian church, learning to identify the various fruits and vegetables growing there. They created stakes for each plant and hand wrote the name of that fruit or vegetable in the languages spoken by the refugees served locally (Spanish, Swahili, Ukrainian, Persian, and Arabic).
Through this program, the teens also learned about the way in which refugees are supported in the community: receiving assistance in finding housing, employment, language services, supplies to make their house a home, and more.
The teens also learned the significance of welcoming in Jewish tradition and treating every person with dignity – kavod ha’adam.
(L-R) Kira Denham and Eden Zimmerman, with Andrea Sequera at work behind them.
The group’s next project is on Sunday, April 30 in partnership with Water4Mercy. Teens will learn about how Israeli technology in drip irrigation is helping to build sustaining communities in Africa.
The Better to Serve curriculum is designed to take teens on a journey through service, exploring the purpose of service and its relevance to their lives; how Jewish text and tradition enrich and inspire meaningful service experiences; the social issues within which students’ service-learning experiences are situated; and the values and challenges that shape their service experiences. Better To Serve is a grant-funded program implemented by Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
For more information, contact program coordinator Erica Hruby at ericanhruby@gmail.com or call/text her at (407) 733-9088.
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