200+ Volunteer on Mitzvah Day

More than 200 people participated in the mitzvah day organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta on Jan. 16, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The volunteers worked at Hillels of Georgia on the Emory campus, Berman Commons and the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

Children learn to have fun while doing good during the mitzvah day project at Hillels of Georgia’s Marcus Hillel Center at Emory.

“It was inspiring to spend MLK Day in a Jewish way with our kids,” said Rabbi Russ Shulkes, the executive director of Hillels of Georgia. “We made tzedakah boxes to teach our children the importance of helping others.”

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Volunteers at the food bank sorted and boxed 19,000 pounds of donated food into 12,700 meals and supplies to be distributed to over 600 organizations that benefit from the food bank’s services.

Berman Commons volunteers joined with residents to make over 600 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and 30 dozen sugar cookies for shelters and fire and police stations.

“The turnout proves that our community is in search of ways to give back meaningfully, and we are eager to provide more opportunities like this” said Rachel Kosberg, Federation’s under 40 development officer, who helped organize the event.

The mitzvah day chairs were Michael Plasker, Ellen Arnovitz, Amy Arogeti and Josh Gold.