Sammy Elfanbaum, Jeremy Schwartz, & Maddie Lapp

Congregation B’nai Amoona

Friends since they attended preschool together, Sammy, Jeremy and Maddie had all volunteered, at one time or another at the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry. There they learned how important it was to give to others and that the Food Panty was in need of donations.

Wanting to tie their project to Sammy’s bar mitzvah party theme of comic books, they cleverly called their undertaking “Souper Heroes.” The goal was to collect hundreds of cans of soup and donate them to the Jewish Food Pantry. And, collect they did. Close to 600 cans of soup were collected in a three-month period.

Sammy, Jeremy and Maddie held three different collection dates at Pardes, the B’nai Amoona religious school they attend, and had a donation box at their own parties. They also had an incentive for people to donate. Each person who donated three cans of soup would receive a raffle ticket as well as a sticker that said “I’m a Souper Hero.” At the end of the collection, the winning ticket received an iPod Touch.

Jeremy, son of Sharon Fivel and Steve Schwartz of Olivette, said, “We tried to motivate other people to give more, not just for the iPod Touch, but for other people.” He also said that since cans of soup are not expensive people might be likely to donate more.

Sammy, son of Holly and Steve Elfanbaum of Creve Coeur, really enjoyed working with Jeremy and Maddie. “If we hadn’t worked together, we wouldn’t have collected so many cans of soup,” he said. “We were so busy getting ready for my bar mitzvah, lessons and invitations, buying new clothes and making plans, that it was good to stop and think of other people and what we could do for them,” he added.

“Since times are hard and some people are having trouble feeding their families, I wanted to do a project for those less fortunate,” said Maddie, daughter of Sue and Marc Lapp, also of Olivette. “We also volunteered at the Danforth World Food Day event by packaging meals for people facing critical food shortages in Tanga in Tanzania.”

This community is in close proximity to the areas in which Danforth Center scientists are working to relieve long-term malnutrition and challenges to the food supply. The Danforth Center chose to commemorate World Food Day – a day marking the founding of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization – by increasing awareness and understanding of the challenge of global malnutrition and encouraging informed, year-around action to alleviate hunger through scientific and humanitarian efforts. The center is looking for volunteers at this year’s event taking place on October 14-15.

Both Maddie and Jeremy attend Ladue Middle School and Sammy is a student at Parkway Northeast Middle School. They would like all our readers to know that you, too, can be a “Souper Hero” by volunteering at the Jewish Food Pantry and/or donating any of the following items; peanut butter, jelly, tuna, macaroni & cheese, cereal and kosher items.

The Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, a program of Jewish Family & Children’s Service, provides food, personal care items and social services to help individuals and families through difficult times until they can be independent.

The statistics speak for themselves. For the first four months of 2011, the Jewish Food Pantry registered 1,728 new clients, an increase of 33.9% over 2010. In that same time, they served a monthly average of 4,165 people, 18.8% more than in 2010. Although many congregations in St. Louis host their own High Holiday food/personal item drive, the need is still there a month or two later. The need is there all year long.