The goal of MAZON’s “The Corners of Our Fields” campaign is to raise money for MAZON’s work in your community and beyond, and to collect food for local charities. Critical to the success of this effort is promoting an understanding that donations of both food (to a local charity) and money (to MAZON) are crucial to finding a long-term solution to the hunger crisis.
MAZON provides synagogues with a camera-ready ad for placement in a synagogue bulletin or newsletter; hunger-related sermon notes; and “The Corners of Our Fields” contribution envelopes, which can be stapled to grocery bags, distributed to your congregants on Rosh Hashanah, or placed on each seat in the sanctuary on Yom Kippur.
Envelopes are available in any quantity you desire. Please contact us by phone or by fax, and we’ll be certain to get them to you in a timely manner. Or order now by
emailing us.
Please note: The "Corners of Our Fields" materials will be available as downloads from our website beginning two months prior to the High Holy Days.
The following are tried-and-true steps to ensuring a successful High Holy Days anti-hunger campaign:
1. At least one month before Rosh Hashanah: - Recruit leaders from different committees and groups within the congregation to help organize the drive.
- Identify a local food bank or homeless shelter that needs your donations. If you do not have a relationship with a food bank in your area, call MAZON at (310) 442-0020. Ask if the food bank needs a particular type of food. If so, be sure to publicize this information on your grocery bags. High-protein foods and baby formula are usually the most desired products.
- Publicize “The Corners Of Our Fields” by printing the camera-ready ad in your synagogue newsletter.
- Order grocery bags. In many areas, a local supermarket donates the bags. If asked, some will customize your bags with information about the campaign.
- Order MAZON envelopes.
- In advance of the High Holy Days, explain the project on Shabbat from the bimah, including information about how the collected food will be distributed. Be sure to announce what types of food are most needed.
2. One week before Rosh Hashanah: - Prepare the grocery bags for distribution by attaching any guidelines you might have for specific types of donations. Be sure to give instructions for where and when to return the bags and envelopes.
- Staple a MAZON envelope to each bag.
- Arrange to receive and transport the collected food. Find a suitable storage area in the building, or place a truck in the parking lot. If you park the truck on the street, you might need a permit from the local police. See if the food bank can pick up the donation. If they cannot, look for a few congregants to volunteer their vans and their driving skills.
3. The day before Rosh Hashanah: - Put bags on seats in preparation for Rosh Hashanah services, or distribute the bags as congregants leave the sanctuary at the end of services. The "bag-on-the-seat" method with the MAZON envelope has proven to be the most effective way of putting the material in people's hands.
4. On Yom Kippur: - Encourage your congregants to donate to MAZON the amount of money they would have spent to feed themselves and their families on this day of fasting.
5. After Yom Kippur: - MAZON will send a report to each participating synagogue on the dollars raised by the campaign.
