Halloween has come and gone. To trick-or-treat or not to trick-or-treat is no longer the question. Our community’s enthusiastic reaction to last week’s blog post Is October Anything Other Than, Well, Monday? was evidence that trick-or-treating was never the question, not really. Our more profound underlying conversation is how to help our children incorporate into their identities our multiple roles as Jews, Americans, and citizens of a diverse world, embracing core values to guide us throughout our lives.
This Friday, at our Veterans Day commemorations, we will send off the bountiful collection of candy we have gathered to share with our troops. It’s an impressive amount of sugar! The colorful piles of candy show us in the most concrete of ways how together we transformed Halloween into an opportunity to do Hadavar Hanachon – The Right Thing; but it’s not enough.
And so, we immediately turn our attention toward Thanksgiving and our year-long campaign to fight hunger. Our leaders in this important endeavor are the fifth-grade volunteers to our Lower School Student Council. They give up a full lunch and recess period weekly and engage in follow-up work during the week, coordinating gemilut chasidim (social action) programming for our school.
Each day in our lunchroom between now and Thanksgiving, Student Council members will introduce Birkat Hamazon (the prayer after meals) by either sharing insight into the meaning of Birkat Hamazon or by offering information about hunger locally, nationally, or globally. Learning however, while essential, is also not enough. We must act.
To that end, Student Council will set up boxes in the lunchroom and encourage our students to place in those boxes donations of non-perishable foods. They will also prominently display a large jar in the lunchroom and motivate our students to bring in tzedakah money to be placed in that jar and used to help the hungry.
Unlike Halloween, as a school we are not at all ambivalent about Thanksgiving. We celebrate this distinctly American holiday as our own, with joy and gratitude; but, this year will be different. We’ll forego the cranberry cobbler and corn bread treats, as well as the song festival focused on the theme of thankfulness for what we have, and instead transform Thanksgiving preparations at school into an opportunity to do Hadavar Hanachon – the Right Thing.
Our Student Council is reaching out to representatives from a number of organizations dedicated to fighting hunger. These special people, who will be honored guests at our Thanksgiving assembly, have committed their lives to helping the hungry; some focusing their efforts right here in Westchester, others serving the hungry within the Jewish community, and still others who address problems of hunger globally. They will speak to our students about their work, accept our gratitude for their tremendous contributions, and take with them the food and tzedakah money we are collecting to distribute among those who need it.
How can our families help? Provide opportunities at home for children to give what they can: portions of their allowance, money received as birthday gifts, or money earned for chores around the house. Consider giving students the option of foregoing desserts or other non-essential food treats and using the money instead to help the hungry, either bringing the money in or purchasing non-perishable food items with it to donate. The amount is not what matters. What is essential is that together we support our children to develop the habits of helping others, recognizing that it is not enough to count our blessings: we must share them.
And so, let the preparations for Thanksgiving begin. Without any guilt or remorse, enjoy creatively dreaming up luscious menus and savoring thoughts of travel to be with family. Just add into your preparations some attention to providing for the needs of others. Our Student Council is proud to help.
