In ancient times, the Jewish people would deliver sheaves of grain — known as omer — to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the harvest.
While the counting of the omer is now more associated with counting the days from Passover to Shavuot with nightly blessings, Temple Isaiah in Fulton is still honoring the tradition of collecting and delivering grain, but with a more modern twist: The synagogue is collecting cereal to donate to food-insecure people in the area.
Rabbi Craig Axler first got the idea for the food drive from other synagogues who did it in previous years. Over the past two years, Temple Isaiah members have counted the omer by creating short video messages posted to the synagogue’s social media. This year, Axler wanted to do good while observing this tradition.
“We decided to try [a food drive] at Temple Isaiah,” Axler said. “And to do so in a way that both promotes observance of a mitzvah that less of our membership would have had on their ‘front burner’ [counting the omer], and links it to another mitzvah, which should always be at the forefront of our vision — addressing the needs of those who are truly hungry in our local community.”
The temple has partnered with the Howard County Food Bank, which will be distributing its cereal donations to those in need once they receive them. Rachel Petroff Kessler, a family educator at Temple Isaiah, said that the Howard County Food Bank was very enthusiastic about the idea.
A Feeding America blog post by Ash Little notes that cereal can be a hot commodity for food banks. Healthy cereal is a nutritious source of fiber and, as a dry good, has a long shelf life.
“The response to the food drive has been really positive; we’ve gotten a lot of donations,” Kessler said. “I have volunteers signed up for almost the whole omer so far, even though we’re almost a month out. People have been really excited.”
Temple Isaiah has partnered with the Howard County Food Bank in the past, most recently during their January Mitzvah Day. Congregants worked to assemble meal kits for the food bank, eventually donating a total of 77, along with additional food items.
Every day, volunteers have been bringing boxes of cereal to Temple Isaiah. Both individual donors and families have been participating in the food drive. They then take a picture of themselves with their donations, which is then posted to social media along with the blessing for the day’s omer. In a way, it combines Temple Isaiah’s previous tradition of posting video messages for each day with material charity.
The donated cereal will not be sent to the food bank until after Shavuot, though. Right now, the boxes are being assembled into a sort of Mount Sinai of cereal in the Temple Isaiah lobby, representing the breadth of the congregation’s efforts to gather food for those in need and its importance as a mitzvah.
Kessler added that their donations are especially important to the Howard County Food Bank as summer approaches.
“There’s never a bad time to donate food. The food bank generally has its highest need during the summer, so this is a good time for us to give to them,” she said. “We hope people feel compelled to give even when there isn’t a structured drive happening.”
Though there are already volunteers signed up for most days of the omer, Kessler and others at Temple Isaiah still encourage even those who are not members of the congregation to feel free to participate and donate cereal. Anyone is welcome to do so and to contribute to the Mount Sinai of cereal slowly growing in the temple’s lobby.
“In all, it is heaping one mitzvah upon another and another.” Axler said.
