Mitzvah Corps

Mitzvah Corps continues to be an active group with an outstanding core of volunteers, but more are needed to truly serve the community’s needs. Besides providing hands-on assistance and support to the HNT “family,” our ongoing projects include High Holiday outreach, Shabbat challah and wine deliveries, meal preparation, thinking-of-you cards, and visits to congregants. Do you know someone who needs a helping hand? Consider being a part of Mitzvah Corps; you will find that you are receiving much more than you are giving while providing comfort, warmth, and caring through your mitzvot. Contact Judy Ziedman at jraez@comcast.net or 425-883-6482 to volunteer.

Tutor a Child…Change Their World

Join our corps of tutors helping elementary students with math and reading. No experience required, but tutors are sought who can volunteer on a regular weekly basis with one or two students. This consistency means kids and tutors can get to know and bond with one another on a schedule that works for you. Get involved by emailing Linda Krisher at lrok7@msn.com.

Teen Feed

Each month a dedicated crew of HNT volunteers prepares and serves meals to homeless youth in the University District. During the pandemic, menus are split amongst volunteers, prepared at home, and dropped off in the U District. Email our Teen Feed leaders at TeenFeed@h-nt.org for questions or to be added to the Teen Feed volunteer list.

Congregations for the Homeless Shelter Meals

HNT aspires to provide at least two monthly meals for 100 homeless men. This is a great activity for families, friends, or your book group, and HNT will provide organizational support. It’s all done potluck-style with food you can buy or make at home, and it’s easier than you think! You choose the date for lunch or dinner that works for your group. See our guide for How to Captain a Shelter Meal, or email ShelterMeals@h-nt.org for more details or to volunteer. During the pandemic, volunteers are only expected to drop dishes off outside the shelter only (not serve).

Elizabeth Gregory Home Shelter Meals

This facility acts as a permanent address for so many in need for social services, job applications, etc… as well as providing access showers, laundry, computers, and referrals for needed services. The second Sunday of every month, we provide a hot lunch for 40 which can be dropped off Friday afternoon or Sunday morning by 10:30 AM at the day center in the U District.

Harborview Magazine Drive

HNT collects recent magazines for the waiting rooms of Harborview Medical Center. These materials provide a welcome distraction to those spending seemingly-endless hours in the waiting room. After tearing off your address, please drop current magazines in the marked basket in the Upper Foyer.

Resources for Community Outreach

The Social Action/Social Justice Committee has developed an online resource guide with a sampling of the many worthy organizations that need support. Our hope is to provide inspiration as each of us wrestles with the challenge of how we each, in our own way, make a difference in the lives of others, and by doing such, enrich our own lives immeasurably. Click here for the guide.

Making a Difference With Frankel Religious School

FRS is all about making a difference with our own two hands. From Pre-Gan (Preschool) to 8th Grade, classes work on specific mitzvah projects and regularly collect tzedakah to causes of their choice. These projects aim to give voices to the silent, see the unseen, and give back to the community. In addition to FRS and USY social action projects, our new 8th grade program, Gesher (bridge), will create two all-school mitzvah opportunities during the year to continually give back and provide for those in need.

Late Summer

Leschi Elementary School Projects

Each summer we fill over 120 backpacks for children in need at Leschi Elementary. See details at h-nt.org/backpack. But there is still plenty of work to be done to help these children who are just seven miles from HNT. Join our corps of tutors by the end of October, donate winter clothes to keep growing kids in weather-appropriate clothing through the colder months, and donate books for kids to take home on spring break.

Fall

JFS High Holiday Food Drive & Sort

During the High Holidays, HNT collects non-perishable food for the Jewish Family Service Polack Food Bank. Volunteers participate in the JFS Food Sort every year, loading up the food collected at HNT and joining hundreds of other volunteers at JFS to sort the food and stock the pantry. To volunteer, email FoodSort@h-nt.org. During the pandemic, the food sort is done as drop-off only, and JFS staff do the sorting. For questions about this year’s drive, email volunteer@jfsseattle.org.

Congregations for the Homeless Fundraiser

Congregations for the Homeless (CFH) strives to mitigate the pain of homelessness by providing meals and basic needs to men on the eastside. HNT has formed a special relationship with CFH by providing monthly shelter meals. We support them further by filling tables at their annual fundraiser (virtually, during the pandemic). Come hear first-hand accounts of the lifechanging impacts this organization has made, or make a donation. Please email Rebecca@h-nt.org if you can join our table.

Mitzvah Bags

For many years, HNT volunteers have assembled thousands of Mitzvah Bags to keep in our cars to give out to those in need on the street for some sustenance as well as information about available homelessness services. During the pandemic, we encourage you to continue this tradition at home using our ‘How to’ document at this link.

Voter Forum with League of Women Voters

HNT partners with the League of Women Voters, a non-partisan organization, to host voter forums for both candidates and ballot measures. During the pandemic, forums are done virtually via Zoom. Register to vote at https://olvr.votewa.gov/.

Winter

Winter Clothing Collection for Leschi Elementary & ROOTS

Leschi Elementary School has 80 homeless children in need. ROOTS (Rising Out Of The Shadows) is a shelter for young adults, many of whom have aged out of the foster system. We’d like to give these kids and young adults clothing to keep them warm through winter: new or nearly new winter coats, and new socks, gloves, and scarves.

JFS Holiday Gift Drive

Help give kids in need a happier holiday season by donating gifts through Jewish Family Service. We will provide a sign-up form with specific gifts needed which should be dropped off unwrapped. Once all the gifts have been collected, we will coordinate a ‘wrapping party’ before they are delivered. For details email Eliyahu@h-nt.org.

Refugee Household Collection

Jewish Family Service has hundreds of clients overseas who have already been extensively vetted and are awaiting resettlement in the US. These families are fleeing inhumane situations in their countries of origin, and come to the US without even basic household items. In some years HNT helps families by providing a full household (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and general items) upon arrival, and Wish Lists of items for individual families who have recently been resettled in other years. If you would like to rally a group of your friends to sponsor one of these families, contribute to a household collection, help with a “Packing Party,” or have questions, email Refugees@h-nt.org.

The Sophia Way Volunteer Day

The Sophia Way is committed to helping end homelessness for women by providing shelter, social services, and permanent housing with support. Our group volunteers in Sophia’s Closet, the donation room at the Day Center, managing incoming donations and keeping the room organized. During the pandemic, we support Sophia’s Way with donations while we aren’t yet able to return to in-person volunteering.

Jewish Community Legislative Priorities & Lobby Day

In the fall, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle emails out surveys for the community to give input on public policy priorities. Please check your inbox and let your voice be heard! Then in February, we journey to Olympia for a day of lobbying for those issues that matter most to our Jewish community.

Spring

Purim & Penne: Let Your Pasta Be Your Grogger

Are you a penne person? A macaroni maniac? A farfalle fanatic? We invite every family member to bring a box of their favorite dry pasta to use as their grogger during the Purim Shpiel. At the end of the night, drop your box in a bin for Jewish Family Service’s Polack Food Bank.

Annual Blood Drive

This event honors the memory and last wish of Ellen Yusim z”l, a teenage congregant whose family was sponsored by our synagogue when they resettled in Seattle from the former Soviet Union. Timeslot sign-ups for March are available beginning in January at h-nt.org/save-a-life. During the pandemic, HNT has been hosting Pop-Up Blood Drives in our Feinberg Social Hall every two months. Sign up for our next drive at this link (the same link is used anytime new dates are posted). 

HIAS National Refugee Shabbat

HIAS is a Jewish American nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. On Refugee Shabbat, we learn about the global refugee crisis and recommit to putting our values into action. Find further details at h-nt.org/calendar.

Eastside Baby Corner Volunteer Day

Eastside Baby Corner serves as a diaper bank, clothing bank, and food source for more than 800 kids across King County each week. HNT organizes a group to fill orders and sort donations of baby clothes, items and gear. During the pandemic, we are supporting EBC with a diaper drive, which in 2021 collected 6,957 diapers, 284 pouches of wipes (34,932 individual wipes), and $500 to EBC’s Give Big campaign.

Personal Needs Pouch Collection & Assembly

Lend a helping hand when it is needed most by donating and assembling pouches filled with toiletry items that will be donated to Harborview Medical Center for distribution to families who end up there unexpectedly. During the pandemic, this project is on hold until visitors are allowed back in the Harborview ICU.

Summer

JFS Harvesting for the Food Bank

Help collect fresh produce from the Capitol Hill Farmers Market for Polack Food Bank clients on the second & fourth Sundays of the month. The Food Bank serves food insecure households in the Capitol Hill, Central District, and downtown Seattle neighborhoods; as well as vulnerable members of the Jewish community in the Puget Sound region. The Food Bank is a critical piece of the food security system for our most vulnerable community members. RSVP to volunteer@jfsseattle.org or (206) 861-3153.

SummeRun & Walk for Ovarian Cancer Research

Since 1993, the SummeRun has raised over $13 million towards ovarian cancer research. Each year, the HNT Athletes team gathers to participate in loving memory of HNT members Marsha Rivkin, Babs Fisher and Gail Stulberg. Money raised from the SummeRun helps the Marsha Rivkin Center in its mission to save lives and reduce suffering through improved treatment, early detection, and prevention of ovarian cancer. Join our team beginning in June at h-nt.org/SummeRun. During the pandemic, the SummeRun is virtual, so you can participate from anywhere in the world.