This past July, Leket Israel was delighted to host its inaugural Leket Live Mission, where Leket board members and loyal supporters from different countries had the opportunity to visit Leket Israel’s programs in-depth and experience firsthand the variety of its activities that take place each month, from food rescue to distribution.
The goal of Leket Live was to bring together dedicated Leket Israel enthusiasts to learn more about the ins and outs of Leket’s daily work. Although many of the participants are long-time friends of the organization, few were fully aware of the range of needy Israelis Leket that touches every day. The participants gained a greater appreciation for the tremendous amount of logistics involved in rescuing vast amounts of surplus food from all over the country.
Leket Live kicked off with a meeting of all Leket Israel board members, followed by a welcome dinner at Leket’s Logistics Center. At the dinner, a special certificate was presented to Yair Sokolovsky, a National Service volunteer with special needs, for his support of the hot meal collection program. Over the course of three days, the visitors met with representatives from across Leket’s network. The tour started at a farm in central Israel, where the participants learned that 15%-20% of the farm’s yearly crops are donated to Leket. From there they travelled to south Tel Aviv, where they toured poor neighborhoods with a high rate of homelessness and drug addiction, to see firsthand the impact Leket has on the needy in those areas.
Afterward, the group lunched at the Jerusalem Leonardo Plaza, part of the Fattal hotel chain and longtime Leket Israel meal collection site. They heard from senior management about the unique relationship between the two organizations. They continued on to the Knesset to meet with Member of Knesset Nachman Shai, partake in the daily food collection, and tour the Knesset building.
The day ended with a tour of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot and dinner in Machane Yehuda. On the last day, the group volunteered at a soup kitchen in Dimona and sat down with the manager to learn more about their relationship with Leket Israel. The last stop was at Ir Habahadhim, a large IDF army base outside of Beer Sheva, where the participants met the base commander and collected the surplus lunch.
To view photos from the event, please click here. We look forward to seeing you at our Second Annual Leket Live Mission next year.
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