South Lake Tahoe’s Jewish community’s Temple Bat Yam hosted Bread & Broth’s Monday Meal on May 19.   Their Adopt A Day of Nourishment (AAD) sponsorship was their second sponsorship in the last year, and the synagogue was represented by Temple Bat Yam members Natalie Brackett and Wendi Shulman. In addition to Natalie and Wendi, fellow synagogue member Janet Blumberg, who is also a Bread & Broth (B&B) volunteer and coordinates the Adopt A Day team members for Monday Meal Team #3, played the dual role of a regular B&B volunteer and a representative of Temple Bat Yam. 

Natalie and Wendi spend their first hour of volunteering helping wrap utensils and then bagging the food giveaway bags.  The dinner guests truly enjoy the hot and tasty meals, but also very much appreciate the food they receive to take home for meals later in the week.  The bags are often filled with items that are frequently very expensive and are not always affordable for many of the dinner guests.  So, receiving meat, milk, eggs, butter, and an assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables means many more healthy, nutritious meals that they can prepare for themselves.

Wendi Shulman has been an AAD volunteer at previous sponsorships, and she shared that “the structure of setting up the meal service and serving the dinner guests is always amazing.”  B&B strives to run a meal service that is efficient, allowing everyone to stay busy but also enjoy their time serving others, and for the dinner guests to have a stress-free meal and enjoy the company of others.

Once the doors opened for dinner, Natalie and Wendi helped the B&B volunteer staff serve a hearty meal consisting of chicken breasts with a mushroom gravy, rice pilaf, roasted garlic broccoli, and a lovely, marinated veggie salad.  The meal was topped off with a great variety of desserts and drink choices.  After being on the serving line, Natalie observed that the “dinner guests seem so welcome and comfortable.”   

A focus of Temple Bat Yam is for Jewish life to be nourished by caring, compassion, and commitment.  What better way to meet these goals than to support Bread & Broth’s efforts to ease hunger by providing meals and food to those in need.  Thank you to the Temple Bat Yam community for hosting a Bread & Broth Monday Meal.

-Bread & Broth