For the third year in a row, this morning we participated in our temple's annual Mitzvah Day by preparing hundreds of bag lunches for a local soup kitchen that normally just provides one hot meal daily for the homeless community; for one day they'll be able to send people home with a nonperishable lunch too. Each bag got a freshly made PBJ, a snack, a treat, a piece of fruit, and a bottle of water, along with a cheerful kid-made card adorned with drawings and stickers. There are so many worthwhile projects going on every year (writing letters to soldiers overseas, packing up bags of toiletries for women's shelters, bringing pets to visit at a nursing home, and so on), but I always choose this activity because it's such a simple, concrete example for the kids of how we can help others who are less fortunate than we are. "We have more than we need, so we share with others. People who would go hungry today will have a meal because we all chipped in to buy the food and then gave our time to prepare the lunch bags." They really get it, and it feels great.
*Repair the world.
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