Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide

Made with Love: A Story of Ma’achil R’ay-vim (feeding the hungry)
This story, written by Maxine Handelman, is based on a United Way Success Story about
senior volunteers at the Heritage Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, KS, and
appeared in What’s Jewish About Butterflies, A.R.E. Press,
2004.
Helen knows it’s Tuesday when she walks into her Jewish
community center because she can smell the fruity scents of
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jelly and the peanuty odors of peanut butter. Helen’s white stick goes tap tap tap as she
makes her way into the room. “Hello, Joe!” Helen says to a man who is spreading grape
jelly onto a slice of whole wheat bread. “Good morning, Sylvia,” Helen says to a woman
smearing peanut butter onto a slice of white bread. Helen
taps her stick until she comes to the end of the table. She
sits down and feels around on the table. She finds plastic
gloves, sandwich bags, and an already growing pile of
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Helen can’t see with
her eyes, but using her nose and her fingers to guide the
way, she gently takes each sandwich and puts it in a bag.
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Every Tuesday, Helen joins her friends at the JCC. Every Tuesday, they make 500 peanut
butter & jelly sandwiches for hungry people in their town. They use eight huge jars of
peanut butter, six large cans of jelly, and 50 loaves of bread! Each person has his or her
own job. Some people like to spread the jelly; others prefer to shmear the peanut butter. It
is hard for Helen to see if she’s getting the right amount of jelly on the bread, but she has
an important job just the same: putting the sandwiches in the bags.
Helen bags the finished sandwiches and chats with her friends Marian, Stan, and Shirley
as they all work together to make the sandwiches. Marian’s job is the jelly, Stan’s is the
peanut butter and Shirley cuts the sandwiches before giving them to Helen to bag.
Suddenly Helen stops, bag in one hand and sandwich in the other. Her nose twitches.
“Stan, are you feeling okay? There’s barely any peanut butter on this sandwich.” “Oh
Helen, you have a very powerful nose! My jar is almost empty, but I was feeling too lazy
to get up and get another.” The friends all laugh, and Helen says, “We’ll wait.” Stan gets
up and saunters over to the supply shelf, where he gets a four pound jar of peanut butter.
After a long while, Helen hears the sounds of spreading and chatting fade away, and she
can tell that the tables are being cleaned up. As she leaves the JCC that day, over the tap
tap tap of her white stick she hears the sounds of vans, carrying 500 peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches to hungry people all over the city. Helen smiles to herself and goes
home to make herself some lunch – a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, of course!
Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide
USCJ Department of Education
Maxine Handelman
Handelman@uscj.org
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