The IsraeLight - Temple Israel Ner Tamid

The IsraeLight
Special Deliveries: How 200 PB&J Sandwiches
Get from TINT to the Hungry Every Friday Night
By Allan Miner
Did you know that in addition to our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, TINT volunteers hand out food donated by
Panera’s and Chick-Fil-A. Here is a typical Friday night route:
After the sandwiches are made every Friday after services, we have two Panera‘s Bread pick-ups to make: one at Harvard
Park and one at Wilson Mills. This requires two people in separate cars to split this task. Normally, Peter Freimark
will get the Harvard Park donation and take this with some PB&J boxes separately to The Edward Keating Center on W.
117 th Street and Carbon Avenue.
If Peter isn‘t around, then TJ Summers goes to Harvard Park, we meet at the Wilson Mills Panera‘s to consolidate the
donations and boxes of PB&J for the trip downtown for street distribution. We take the Shoreway to the W. 28 th St. exit
where we begin to distributive to the people on the street. In the winter, we are providing coats and blankets to anyone
who is in need. In all seasons we hand out bottles of water.
We start on West 25 th at St. Malachi Center, where there are usually around 5-7 people around the buildings. We then
take the Detroit/Superior Bridge to W. 9 th where there is a regular recipient wrapped in plastic in a corner doorway; there
we drop off sandwiches and water. Next, we make our way around
Public Square, where there are usually 5-7 people waiting. We politely
ask them if they need a sandwich; water is often requested here.
The Old Stone Church usually has a person on the steps that regularly
accepts sandwiches and water. We scan this area thoroughly. We then
go to the area around St. Clair and E. 9 th St where there are 3-4 people
in a recessed doorway. Just around the corner there is usually some
one, but not always the same person, on the grating. We travel E. 12 th
Street looking under the benches installed there and in the bus shelters.
We run by the Greyhound station and the adjacent parking lot
and provide sandwiches to all who want them. We go to the Bishop T
Cosgrove building where there are usually people camped out on the
sidewalk or wrapped in blankets in the bus shelter. On E. 30 th St and
Payne Avenue, we drop off some of the Panera‘s and sandwiches, at
the Norma Herr Women‘s Center. If we have the energy, we go down
Superior to E. 40 th and then back up toward E 20 th Street on St. Clair.
Men are allowed in the shelter at 4:00 pm but we find them in the surrounding areas around Lakeside Avenue where
people congregate, sleeping on pallets and sitting on the sidewalks and steps of various buildings. They are grateful for
the sandwiches and water. We drop off whatever we have left at the Lutheran Ministries Men‘s Shelter at 2100 Lakeside
Avenue. They get breakfast before they leave in the morning.
We also take donations from Panera‘s and/or Chick-Fil-A to the Casa Alma Center at 3387 Fulton Avenue run by a west
side Hispanic non-profit group known as UMADOT.
This route starts at around 10:20pm (we have to wait for Panera‘s to close) and we get back to the Temple parking lot at
around 12:30 every Friday. The regulars who always are performing this Tzedakah are: Peter Freimark, TJ Summers,
Continued on page 9
8 March/April 2011 � Adar II/Nisan 5771