Group Raises Dough to Help the Hungry

Dickinson’s Challah for Hunger chapter will sell its first challah loaves of the season on Friday, Oct. 30 to raise money for food banks and collection centers.

Challah for Hunger is a national organization with the mission to “bring people together to bake and sell challah in an effort to raise money and awareness for social justice causes,” according to their website.

Michelle Orden ’17 and Yael Farber ’17 brought the organization to Dickinson last year and the chapter is currently led by Sarah Kleine ’16. The first baking event was held on Wednesday, Oct. 28 in preparation for Friday’s bake sale, which will be the first of the club’s five selling dates this semester.

According to Kleine, the club made several operational changes from last year. This year, instead of making the Challah dough themselves, the club will be purchasing the dough from a kosher bakery in Carlisle.

Getting pre-made dough allows “fun without any baking drama,” Kleine said. Club members only have to braid the challah and add in extra treats such as chocolate chips. Kleine will also lead an afternoon yoga session while the dough rises for all who wish to join.

The funds raised at the bake sales will be donated to MAZON: The Jewish Response to Hunger, and Project Share in Carlisle.

Orden was inspired to bring Challah to Hunger to Dickinson after participating in a service-learning trip in Israel in the summer of 2014. While in Israel, Orden spent the beginning of her trip working at Be’re Sova, a soup kitchen that provides nutritious hot meals to the people of the community. Orden and her group eventually had to move to a city further away from the Gaza Strip due to escalating violence between Israel and Hamas.

“Although my work at Be’er Sova was cut short due to our relocation, my time there was meaningful and led me to concentrate on community service in food security at Dickinson,” Orden said. She “learned a lot about what it means to come together as a community, which is exactly what [she] wanted to bring back to Dickinson’s campus through Challah for Hunger.”

The remainder of her service, where she cleaned out bomb shelters in Yerucham so that the people had a safe refuge when bomb sirens went off, also inspired Farber to help organize a Challah for Hunger chapter at Dickinson.

Challah for Hunger is excited for the club to resume this fall and hopes for a successful second year. Orden credits the support of Farber, Edward Merwin, associate professor of religion and the director of the Asbell Center and Lori Loudon, administrative assistant for the Asbell Center, for the success of the club’s first year.

“I love seeing students from different parts of the Dickinson community come together and work towards something really special. It is rewarding to see something that started off campus over a year ago continue to flourish today,” Orden said.

Members of the Dickinson community can support the club by purchasing challah on select Friday’s in the HUB and by volunteering to bake in the Asbell center. The club does not require a regular commitment, and anyone is welcome to join them during baking dates.