A Mother’s Mission That Became a Link in the Rescue Chain

When Natali’s 4½-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer, her life split into before and after. Hospital corridors replaced playgrounds. Sleepless nights became routine. Every day revolved around treatments, test results, and quiet prayers that her little boy would recover.

In the middle of that uncertainty, Natali felt something unexpected. Alongside the fear, there was a deep need to give— to do something that would bring light into someone else’s darkness.

At the time, her husband was working at Leket’s Logistics Center, and through him she was introduced to the work of Leket Israel. What began as awareness quickly turned into action. From her home in Ra’anana (central Israel), she opened a small distribution point for rescued agricultural produce. What started as a personal response to pain grew into a life’s mission.

Seventeen years later, Natali still manages Chesdei Avraham, one of Leket Israel’s 346 nonprofit partner agencies. Each week, single parents, elderly individuals, and families facing serious financial hardship arrive knowing they will leave with healthy, nourishing food.

“Without Leket Israel, we would not be able to function,” she says. “They make sure we have what to give, week after week.”

The fruit and vegetables she distributes may not meet supermarket standards. They may be too small, too large, or slightly irregular in shape. But they are fresh, high quality, and nutritious. For the families who receive them, they are the difference between an empty table and a balanced meal.

“You can feel that Leket Israel gives from the heart,” Natali says. “There is real blessing in the produce that reaches us.”

Even the imperfect shapes become part of the story. They inspire creativity in the kitchen, new recipes, and shared family meals built around what is available rather than what is missing.

Today, long after her son’s recovery, Natali continues her work with the same sense of purpose that first moved her to act. Her experience taught her something she now sees every week in the faces of the families she serves, more than the giver does kindness for the receiver, the receiver does kindness for the giver.