Here's to You, Mr. Robinson
Leket Israel's Director of Operations Yonatan Ben-Dor remembers first meeting Dave Robinson. "Our volunteers in the Hadera region of Israel are fantastic. Every night they collect excess, unserved food from local-area wedding calls at about 23:00 at night. Usually they come back with their car completely filled with food. But we had a special problem in that region – we couldn't find a non-profit organization that was willing to receive the food at the late hour our volunteers collect it.

"Dave Robinson and his wife Fay are two of our most dedicated volunteers. If ever I couldn't find a volunteer for a collection, I'd call Dave and ask for his help. His Irish-accented answer was always the same: "I'll take care of it". And so when I told Dave that I couldn't find a local-area organization to receive the food our volunteers collected, was I ever happy that his answer was right on target".

"My wife Fay and I live in Givat Olga, which is one of the most economically distressed cities in Israel", says Dave Robinson. "When we couldn't find an organization to receive the great food I and other volunteers collected, I decided to take a tour of the area and see what the needs were. I met so many wonderful families in such bitter need. 'If there's nobody here to help them', I said to Fay, 'then I guess I'll have to".

Now, three times a week, Dave distributes the food collected at event halls by Leket Israel volunteers to local-area families. He stores the food in refrigerators donated by local Hadera residents, and packs the food in aluminum containers paid for by the Jewish community of Dublin, Ireland.

"It's tiring work, all the late night collections and early morning distributions," Dave says, "but I can't just sit by while so much great food is about to be thrown away. Not when so many people in my city are living in need. More volunteers would be a great help to us, as well as further funding for refrigeration and containers. But until they come, Fay and I will be happy to take care of things as best we can."

Tel Aviv's Lasova
In 1990, Tel Aviv attorney Gilad Harish and his wife Sharona decided to do something for the hungry of Tel Aviv: They established Lasova, a soup kitchen located in the heart of Tel Aviv. Fifteen years later what began as a small initiative has developed into a diverse network of social welfare agencies, which include 3 soup kitchens (in Tel Aviv, Acco, and Carmiel), a homeless shelter ("Gagon"), a network of Youth Clubs("Kadima"), a mobile clothes collection operation ("Egged Begged"), and a food-collection ("Asif Hair"). Together, the Lasova network provides daily over 1,500 meals to underprivileged Israelis.

Leket Israel  is proud to partner with Lasova. Every day Leket Israel provides fresh food to Lasova's soup kitchens, homeless shelter, and youth clubs, and also provides weekly distributions of fruits and vegetables. During the evening hours,  Leket Israel's volunteers, in co-operation with Asif Hair, collect food from celebration halls in the Tel Aviv area and distribute the rescued food to the Gagon homeless shelter.

Bat Yam's Ohavim
A food shelter that serves over 700 meals a week is one bound by huge food expenses. "Despite some donations", says Batsheva, the manager of Ohavim, "we were spending 75% of our funding on food: thousands of shekels a week. We had no choice - the food had to come from somewhere."

Soon that 'somewhere' became Leket Israel. "We're now receiving 75% of our fresh food from Leket Israel," Batsheva says. "Every week they deliver us close to 500 meals worth of fresh food and vegetables, which totals to a huge savings in expenditure, and a great leap in the quality of food we're able to distribute".

Run by a permanent staff of two and six dedicated volunteers, Ohavim serves lunch 5 days a week to hundreds of Bat Yam residents from all ethnic groups. Customers pay a symbolic fee, depending on their abilities, but no-one is ever refused a meal.

According to Ohavim it is now able to relocate its resources from food expenditures to providing other important services, including purchasing books and shoes for children, hosting the Bar-Mitzvah of a local youth, and helping a local resident finane his solar water- heater repair. Says Batsheva, "Leket Israel is allowing us to invest in important areas of service that we could otherwise be unable to afford. Bat Yam recipients are appreciative of what we're able to do for them, and we're grateful for being able to do it."

*Leket Israel is formerly known as Table to Table Israel