On Mitzvah Day, for the 16th year running, our volunteers spent the morning outside Sainsbury’s in Crouch End collecting food and toiletries for local Food Banks and Muswell Hill Soup Kitchen.
It was truly heart-warming to see the generosity of our local community and how warmly the project was welcomed by shoppers in Crouch End. The highlight of the day, was when one lady donated a whole box of 20 large chocolate bars which are going to be given as gifts for guests at the soup kitchen as well as a large bag of toiletries. She said she wanted to donate generously as she had needed food banks herself in the past and now wanted to give back.
This year we focused not only on the interfaith aspect but also on involving multiple generations—and we were thrilled to have 10 teens join us. They were surprised by how much fun they had and it was wonderful to see them so engaged in something meaningful.
As ever we were also joined by friends from Wightman Road mosque, Ali, one volunteer who came to help said “It was such a lovely experience collecting for food banks with my friends from Muswell Hill’s Jewish community! We worked together very well as a team to make sure we received donations from the public. I even learnt something new: A mitzvah is a good deed! Happy Mitzvah Day!’
Thanks to everyone’s kindness, we gathered an impressive amount of goods, over 100 bags of shopping, many of which have already been delivered to the Soup Kitchen, who were extremely grateful.
We can proudly say we fulfilled the spirit of mitzvah yesterday.
Karen and Nicky Ackerman
