Everybody needs food. Some people, of course, have a harder time finding it than others. That’s where the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s latest volunteer program comes in.
Rose City Mitzvah Meals, launched earlier this summer by Federation Volunteer Coordinator Merit Pinker, partners with organizations around the city to provide frequent opportunities for Jewish community members to cook and serve food to those in the area who need it most.
“The locations range from homeless shelter shelters to youth mentorship programs to housing facilities for families with children that are undergoing medical treatment,” Pinker said. “It really runs the gamut of populations that we’re serving across Portland, but the chief interest of all of these programs is addressing hunger and the need for food and a reliable meal that these communities have.”
The program is a byproduct of Pinker’s participation in the Jewish Federations of North America’s Catalyst program, promoting volunteer service and service-learning programs in Jewish communities across the country. Pinker, as part of the most recent cohort, worked with professionals in all kinds of locations and federation roles. Catalyst also provides grant funding for participants to launch a program in their communities.
“It’s been really interesting to see what people are doing with the grants. Some people have launched programs specifically for teens. Some people have done one big day of service using the grant money,” Pinker said. “Everybody is really responding to their community needs in really interesting and different ways. So great to take inspiration also from what these other groups are doing.”
When looking for a good program for Portland, Pinker said one key issue kept coming up.
“When I talked to community members, food and hunger insecurity is one of the biggest things that I kept hearing from our Jewish community as what they see as the biggest issue in Portland right now,” she said.
At each Rose City Mitzvah Meals program, a small group of volunteers work together to cook, then serve, meals to the populations served by partner agencies. And while Maimonides’ Eight Levels of Charity places great emphasis on anonymity, there’s something powerful about stripping that veil away.
“When we’re talking about serving somebody a meal, adding that human element, putting a face to the meal that’s being prepared and getting to share that really human connection with somebody, that’s just as important as the food that you’re providing. You’re giving people dignity and we are interacting with the people that we’re serving in a way that really shows that we are part of one community,” Pinker explained. “Food is such a part of Jewish culture, it’s such a way that we as Jews show each other how much we love and care about each other. This just takes that a step further into our broader Portland community. It’s a plate of food that says, ‘I care about you, I have hope for you, I want the best for you.’”
Each program also comes with Jewish learning – engaging with text and conversation with fellow volunteers.
“These texts from a long, long time ago really are applicable to our modern life and the service that we continue to do today and seeing how integral service and community action has been since Judaism’s beginnings,” Pinker said.
The first Rose City Mitzvah Meals program was held July 1 at Transition Projects in Southeast Portland, serving up 90 dinners for men looking for jobs and permanent housing in Southeast Portland. Yesterday’s Mitzvah Meals program served families with children receiving medical treatment through Ronald McDonald House in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood. Opportunities are coming up next week with Portland youth mentoring program p:ear at their facility in Northwest Portland and at Transition Project’s Jean’s Place in Northeast Portland.
“We have strategically picked locations in each of the four quadrants of Portland because we have heard, and we’ve learned from our community and from the community study that was done a couple of years ago, that geography is a big barrier to people engaging in Jewish life and engaging with their Jewish community,” Pinker said.
Numerous opportunities are available at each of these sites through the rest of the year and into 2027, but capacity of reach event is limited and fills up fast. Learn more and register for a program (or more than one) online at jewishportland.org/jewishportlandregfoxcom/rose-city-mitzvah-meals .
PHOTO: Merit Pinker/The Jewish Review