Key People: Yedidya Rosenberg

Meet Yedidya Rosenberg, Manager of Project Meal Rescue and our Agency Relations Department. Click here for the full story:

Behind the Scenes Profile: In each issue of the Volunteer Newsletter, we will tell you about one of our organization’s valued staff-members.

Yedidya Rosenberg currently lives in KibbutzEin Tzorim, with his wife and three children. Yedidya made Aliyah from Englandat the age of 8, along with his family; after living in an Absorption Centerfor a year and a half, they moved to Jerusalem. According to Yedidya, his childhood and adulthood were “completelynormal.”  He attributes his experiencesin elementary school, high school, a meaningful service in the Armored Corps inthe IDF, and Yeshiva Studies all helped him to integrate into Israelisociety.  Yedidya has a B.A in Philosophyand Geography from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Hisperspective began to change after he completed his studies, “I began torealize that raising the sales margin of the bourekas at the restaurant andbakery I worked at didn’t interest me; I was interested in pursuing somethingmore meaningful.”  He continues, “AlthoughI volunteered for many years, I wanted to work within the field.” Yedidyawent on to work in Jewish and Zionist Organizations that promoted Jewisheducation, Jewish values and justice. Exactly 5 years ago, he joined Leket Israel as Volunteer Coordinator atLeket’s Hatov v’haMetiv fields near Rechovot. “After working in an office, working in the fields with volunteerswas a unique and valuable experience. Although being constantly outdoors wasnot always easy, the relationships I created with the volunteers fromthroughout Israel and abroad, working the land, and the feeling ofgiving—knowing that the  freshagricultural harvest goes directly to the needy—was truly special.”  About 50,000 volunteers visit Leket Israeleach year, picking and harvesting agricultural produce for Israel’s needy, “Thereare a great deal of volunteers, and it is really touching to see them all enjoythemselves.”

Aftertwo years in the fields, meeting thousands of volunteers who picked a hugeamount of crops for the needy, Yedidya decided he wanted to see how all of thefood could be distributed to agencies serving the poor in the most efficientway possible.   Yedidya thus began towork for Leket’s Agency Relations department, a position he created anddeveloped. Within a year, he had gathered data on all of the agencies, wroteregulations and rules regarding Leket’s work with their nonprofit partners,visited organizations throughout the country, and dealt with any and allproblems and challenges that arose.  Hebecame the “open ear” for all of the agencies.
“It moves me to see all thepeople so happy to receive fruits and vegetables that were harvested from thefields, and to see that the donations truly make it to those who really needthem in the most efficient way; the knowledge that if it wasn’t for the food wesupply them with, these people really wouldn’t have enough to eat.” Theinitiatives that Yedidya established and expanded became Leket’s AgencyRelations department, which currently handles our partnerships withorganizations directly serving Israel’s needy.

Currently,Yedidya manages the Meal Rescue Department, which is responsible for collectingcooked food from restaurants, caterers, and cafeterias. “The amount of mealscollected is constantly growing in number and we now distribute more than one millionmeals per year. The knowledge that these meals would have been thrown away hadwe not collected them and distributed them to thousands of people daily bringsme great joy and encourages me continue to move forward.”

                “My schedule constantly changes and includes acombination of both office time and field work, which I love doing; I meet withthe people in the field and observe our activities as they become more and moreefficient, serving those who greatly need our help.”