Feed the Hungry through Heifer International

It All Starts With A Heifer

Phoebe Stern, Andrew Kiepek, and Ryan Krichbaum

Imagine a gift that not only feeds the hungry, but also empowers families to turn hunger and poverty into hope and prosperity. Welcome to Heifer International.

Rooted in the “teach a man to fish” philosophy, Heifer International not only provides families and villages with cows, chickens, and other food-providing animals, they also link communities and educate the members so they are able to generate both food and a reliable income through agricultural products such as milk, eggs and honey. This well respected not-for-profit charity feeds, educates and empowers.

This year, our 7th Grade “It All Starts With A Heifer” team is helping. A heifer is a life changing gift, so that’s our goal. We are asking that you contribute as we work to collect $500.00 and make that gift come true! Please look for our It All Starts With A Heifer bake sales at Micah in the coming months. Our collection box will also be conveniently on display – every donation helps us get closer to our goal!

We hope you will not only check in with our team at Micah, but also visit the Heifer International website which we promise will inspire you! www.heifer.org. Thank you for your support! 

Micah's B'nai Mitzvah Kids Featured in The Tablet

Sometimes we can get so distracted by the busy nature of our own lives that we miss all the myriad of ways that our wonderful congregation is reaching out to and affecting the larger community and world. Our Micah professional leadership is often just as busy around Nashville as they are at Micah, participating in boards, sitting on panels, and delivering lectures. But Micah's outreach into the community doesn't stop there. Even our religious school teachers and students are having an incredible effect on the larger community.  Check it out!

  

 

From Tablet Magazine - Written by Marjorie Ingall 

     "...At Congregation Micah in Nashville, Tenn., teacher Rachel Tawil Kenyon ensures that there's Jewish perspective and pedagogical value to mitzvah projects. She told me, "Stuff is more tangible to kids than money. We just did a collection for Children's Family Services and the YES program that ended up with maybe $1,000 in school supplies, but that doesn't mean much to kids. What matters to them is seeing the pencils, and carrying the backpacks out to my car. They can wrap their brains around that much more easily than [the abstract notion] of a dollar."

     Last year, Kenyon's seventh-graders did a project to help a local shelter for battered women. "We started with an education component, talking about domestic violence," Kenyon said. "What you learn about relationships as a teenager affects your relationships later. We've had a representative from a shelter and a former resident come speak. The kids learn about what you might need if you flee your house with nothing but a backpack. Even upper-income women may not have access to money. So, we make care baskets-personal hygiene stuff. The girls get really into getting hair products. Kids will say, 'iPhones!' and then we say, 'OK, if we can't give them iPhones, what can we do?' We get them calling cards. And we keep impressing on the kids that our projects are not about going home and asking your parents for money, though they may choose to give some of their bar or bat mitzvah money."

     Kenyon has her students do independent research and interviews, then do a Shabbat presentation to the group about their cause. "Suddenly they feel personally connected," she said. "I grew up in a theater family, and I know that for adults who don't go to the theater as a child, it's like pulling teeth to get them to go as adults. But if you start as a kid, you grow up to be a theatergoer. Doing something well now makes it become second nature."...."

Click here to read the full story.