Seder at JCC focuses on ending childhood hunger

By Linda Linonis

Food insecurity affects nearly 24,000 children in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

YOUNGSTOWN — In Jewish tradition, there is a place for everyone at the Seder meal. In the Hagaddah, the text that sets the order of the Seder, there is a phrase, “Let all who are hungry come and eat.”

Those words will be said during Seders for Passover, which begins at sundown tonight and celebrates the Israelites’ exodus out of Egypt and freedom from enslavement.

A Seder on Tuesday at the Jewish Community Center, 505 Gypsy Lane, highlighted child nutrition and hunger awareness and linked it to freedom from food insecurity. Lack of sufficient food affects some 12.4 million children in the United States and almost 24,000 in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, director of Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Jewish Federation, welcomed the 120 in attendance. The council and the Jewish Community Center, Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, WFMJ Channel 21, Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs were sponsors.

She said 25 Seders were this week, including one sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs in Washington D.C., to advocate a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization this year. Burdman noted proponents of the bill advocate a minimum of $20 billion over the next five years.

The bill encompasses federal programs that feed people and the reauthorization means Congress is reviewing them. Programs that address childhood hunger include school breakfast and lunch programs, summer feeding programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

Rabbi Franklin Muller of Congregation Rodef Sholom, 1119 Elm St., led the Seder. He said during the traditional meal features the story of the Jewish people’s liberation from Egypt while contemporary Seders may have different themes such as peace or hunger awareness.

Each person at the Seder followed along in a Hagaddah, the text that sets out the order of the Seder and in this instance, “liberating American children from the hardship of hunger.”

The Seder ritual uses four cups of wine (grape juice was substituted) that relate to the four promises of God to Israel. This Seder promoted four steps of activism to eradicate hunger — education and awareness, making it personal, advocacy and organizing.

The tables all had Seder plates of symbolic foods including maror, bitter herbs, which at the traditional Seder refers to the bitterness of servitude and at this Seder, the bitterness of hunger.

“The message of Passover is about confronting and overcoming challenges,” Rabbi Muller said.

Rabbi Muller said a “key value” in Judaism is helping people in need. “It should be practiced daily ... helping people year-round.”

Burdman said that a collection for Mazon, the national Jewish organization devoted to the ending hunger, would be taken. The funds then would be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley.

The Seder drew a variety of people, including students from Akiva Academy. The youth, along with other Seder attendees, assisted in the program by reading text of the Hagaddah.

Michele Kubicina of Cortland, who is Catholic, said she saw the Seder advertised on TV. “I thought it was for a good cause,” she said. She also thought it was a chance to learn about the Jewish faith and Passover traditions.

For Marilyn Picuri, who was with her husband Michael, attending a Seder is a seasonal “must do” and she appreciates the traditions. “I think it helps me learn about the Jewish roots of Christianity,” said the Cortland woman, who is a Protestant.

Beatrice and Randall Miller of Warren also were seated at the Seder table. He said their church, Grace African Methodist Episcopal, was a member of Second Harvest. The couple said the food pantry is an outreach ministry of the church and he said in the last few months the church has seen about a “30 percent increase in people.”

“It’s part of our church budget,” Randall Miller said of how the pantry is funded. “It’s an important way to help people.”

HUNGER FACTS

A SOCIAL CONCERN

The need in Mahoning Valley: 23,960 children in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties live in poverty, 39 percent of emergency food recipient households have at least one adult working full time. In the last six months of 2008, member agencies of Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley reported a 38 percent increase in the number of people coming for food assistance.

Food bank help: Second Harvest distributes about 25,000 pounds of food daily and is providing food to more than 9,100 individuals weekly. In 2008, the food bank distributed 6.2 million pounds of food including 2.3 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. It provides food to 155 hunger relief organizations in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties such as church food pantries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and after-school programs.

In the United States: 3.6 million Americans live in households deemed food insecure. Of that number, 23.8 million are adults and 12.4 million are children. Food insecurity means the inability to obtain sufficient food.

To help: Second Harvest needs volunteers to sort and re-pack foods, assist with special events and do clerical work. Call (330) 792-5522. Or, donate money to organizations that supply food to the needy or volunteer at food relief organizations.

Source: Second Harvest Food Bank

linonis@vindy.com