Gleaning feeding on Fugee Fridays

by tikun | December 22, 2008 at 09:46 am

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It is so wonderful to see these young social activists take their vision and translate it into action. There are over 80 volunteers helping gather the food and bringing it to the African Refugees. The have also begun teaching them English besides Hebrew .Within two months this group has expanded beyond their dreams. Dedicated to helping with the education of the children has brought great success and they now have a registered charity to funnel all of the donations in order to help other groups in need.

When Jesse Fox, an urban planning student from Tel Aviv decided to find a way to combine social justice with his passion for the environment, it was, he says: "Just connecting the dots." Today Fox is one of four founders of a young grassroots project called Fugee Fridays.

The group's mission is to distribute the surplus of Tel Aviv's Friday Carmel food market -- which would otherwise go to waste -- to hungry African refugees who fled to Israel on foot to escape persecution. In recent years, there have been literally thousands of African refugees who have come to Israel from countries such as Sudan and Eritrea.

In an attempt to rebuild their lives, they eventually come to a Tel Aviv refugee shelter, and without any government aid, local heroes like Fox and other volunteer organizations step up to the "plate" to help.