Story of Impact: Table to Table

“’YES!’ I cry. A grant of $18,000 beautiful dollars from the Seattle Jewish Federation. What joy, what bliss, and all this first thing in the morning.”

This blissful shout came from Paul Leiba, the development director of Israel’s Table to Table program after the Jewish Federation allocated significant funding to the program, even in these tough economic times.

Table to Table is an Israeli organization founded in 2003 to rescue excess, nutritious food that would otherwise be destroyed and redirect it to people in need. Their efforts began with volunteers driving around in their cars, picking up leftovers from catered events and delivering them to food banks and youth centers. Today, Table to Table has seen over 250,000 volunteers come through its ranks, and has expanded its initiative from small-scale events like Bar and Bat Mitzvahs to corporate cafeterias, commercial food-packing warehouses and gleaning of “b-grade” fruits and vegetables from farms around Israel.

With a legion of volunteers and refrigerated trucks, Table to Table works tirelessly all over Israel to collect food that would otherwise go to waste. Their efforts bring:

• Fresh produce to 8,000 Israelis each week
• More than 110 tons of food each week to over 230 soup kitchens, homeless shelters, senior citizen centers and other social service organizations around Israel
• 250,000 meals per year to organizations working to put an end to hunger in Israel.

Table to Table started small, but now its programs include everything from working with farmers to harvest excess food to putting more lunches in school for children who couldn’t otherwise afford to eat.

“I know I have said it before,” said Leiba, “but I really believe that our success is your success.”