Social Responsibility Calendar for JCCs

This calendar has been created to provide you with ideas for social action and social responsibility drives and programs that you can run in your JCCs for all ages. We have organized it according to the calendar year and have included both the Hebrew and secular months. For example: Tishrei-September-October. We have themed the months, but feel free to conduct any of these programs at a time of year that works best for your community. The goal of this calendar is to ensure that your JCC is promoting social responsibility and bringing about more awareness all year round! Tishrei September-October Theme: Jewish Food and Nutrition Month * JCC Fresh Food Collection: High Holidays 5772 An Apple A Day Campaign to Feed Those in Need * September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month Organize An Apple A Day Campaign to Feed Those in Need fresh food collection. Have community members purchase fresh produce and drop it off in collection bin at the JCC. Visit JCC Resources to see the flyer for this campaign. To find a pantry near you, visit AmpleHarvest.org. President Obama has declared a proclamation that September be National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. Of course, the importance of this issue has no age limits. So, bring in a nutritionist to talk about healthy eating habits. You can target it to different age groups from pre-school to older adults, combine it with a cooking course preparing Jewish food with a healthier twise. This will help educate JCC members on healthy habits and show them how to sustain it at home. Collect healthy non-perishable food items to donate to a food pantry, local agency or other emergency food provider.

 Contact a local assisted living facility, nursing home, head start or other early child program, or other agency to determine what types of vitamins the population they serve could use. Create a collection bin for donated vitamins in new, unopened packaging. Purchase food, prepare, deliver and/or serve meals at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen or other local agency. Organize opportunities to volunteer at a local food bank, pantry or soup kitchen Ask your members to share healthy Jewish family recipes. Compile these into a cookbook for sale donating the proceeds to a charity that helps those who are malnourished or hungry. Run the Journeys program on Food: A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and You, which is an interactive program on food that invites participants to consider how the acts of eating and drinking are not only physical activities, but also ones with profound personal, communal and cultural meanings. Chesvan - October-November Theme: Jewish Social Action * Food Day ~ October 24 ~ A National Healthy Food Initiative * Fighting Poverty with Faith, Working Together to End Hunger ~ October 27 November 6 * Jewish Social Action Month ~ October 28 November 26 Establish a social responsibility team of members and professionals who will be charged with the tasks of implementing social responsibility programming and awareness throughout the JCC. Buy Fair Trade products for your JCC and encourage others to do the same. And/or sell Fair Trade products at your JCC (e.g., coffee and tea). Donate some of the proceeds to support a social service project in the JCC or elsewhere. Check out the Fairtrade Foundation to learn more about sustainable Fair Trade businesses and their products, and Fair Trade Judaica for items crafted with Jewish values. Reach out to a neighboring house of worship, social service organization and create a partnership for social action projects. Create or develop opportunities for youth and teens from different backgrounds to meet and engage in service projects. Plan to host a Social Action Fair with various local social service and environmental agencies represented. Include some DIY (Do-

It-Yourself) activities such as assembling care packages for members of the Armed Forces or making art objects to decorate the rooms of people living in assisted living. Make a list of volunteer opportunities in your JCC and community. (Check out Repair the World and their Service Opportunities.) Plan and host an event/programs in honor of Food Day to promote healthy affordable food produced in a sustainable humane way. Join Fighting Poverty with Faith in its 2011 effort, Working Together to End Hunger. The group is planning events across the country, including Food Stamp Challenges, screenings of the documentary film Food Stamped and Hunger Banquets. www.fightingpovertywithfaith.com. Kislev - November-December Theme: Gifts That Keep on Giving *JCC Fresh Food Collection: One Potato, Two Potato Hanukkah Campaign to Feed Those in Need
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Jewish Book Month ~ November 21 December 21, 2011

* National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week ~ November 12-20, 2011 Organize the One Potato, Two PotatoCampaign to Feed Those in Need fresh food collection. Have community members purchase fresh produce and drop it off in collection bins at the JCC. Visit JCC Resources to see the flyer for this campaign. To find a pantry near you, visit AmpleHarvest.org. Collect used and new books to donate to hospitals, libraries, shelters in honor of Jewish Book Month. Create a collection box for childrens books and donate to local early childhood centers and schools in need. Create volunteer opportunities for JCC members to read to children in a local hospital, to homebound older adults or to the blind. Find out more about the PJ Library, a program that supports families in their Jewish journey by sending Jewish-content books and music on a monthly basis to children. Connect JCC youth and teens to the early childhood department, allowing them to mentor and spend time reading together.

Sponsor a read-a-thon and see how many books or pages people can read during the month. Have people raise money to sponsor the readers and donate the funds raised. Create a project with the children in the after school program to write an illustrated story about the importance of making a difference in your JCC and community, which can be put on display. Start a book club for both members and staff, utilizing the books and resources recommended on JCC Reads. Host a Jewish book Fair to promote Jewish authors and sell books in honor of Jewish Book Month or anytime. Gather a group of volunteers to light a chanukiah with individuals in hospitals or assisted living facilities to celebrate Hanukkah. Gather a group to change the light bulbs in your JCC from regular incandescent bulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs (good for the JCC, good for the planet during some of the darkest days of the year). Collect gift items for Jewish social service agencies to be donated to children for Hanukkah. Collect tzedakah money to adopt an animal for your community through Heifer International and help support their efforts to end world hunger and care for the Earth. (Also makes great virtual holiday gifts.) For more sustainable gift giving suggestions, see COEJLs Chanukah Energy Program & Gift Guide. Each year, during the week before Thanksgiving, the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness co-sponsor National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. A number of schools, communities and cities work to bring greater awareness to the problems of hunger and homelessness. You can find out more about this effort by visiting www.nationalhomeless.org/projects/awareness/index.html