Challah for Hunger

Our mission is to raise awareness of (and money for) world hunger and disaster relief around the world through the production and sales of fresh-baked challah each week on campus. Fifty percent of the proceeds raised supports MAZON: Jewish Response to Hunger. MAZON is a national non-profit working to alleviate hunger for people of all beliefs and backgrounds. They advocate against hunger while providing funds to food banks, emergency food providers, and other hunger relief programs across the country. The other 50% of our proceeds goes to a local non-profit that changes quarterly. We have donated to the Homeless Garden Project, Ag Against Hunger, and others in the past. 

​Alternative Spring Breaks

Alternative Breaks are 1-week to 10-day domestic and international service-learning trips for Jewish college students, usually during the Spring Break period. Participants promote social change by volunteering with local non-profit organizations within the Jewish and general communities. The group has the opportunity to explore the area’s popular sites, wander in the local markets, and meet with their Jewish peers. Jewish learning is a big component of the trips, enabling the students to deepen their own connection to their Jewish identity. International trips explore the added bonus of connecting with K’lal Yisrael, our global Jewish family, and understanding our Jewish responsibility to lend support where needed.
Past Alternative Breaks have included:

• Katrina Relief work in New Orleans, Louisiana
• Renovating communal areas in the slums of Rio de Janiero
• Volunteering at a Jewish Orphanage in Buenos Aires and sorting medications for distribution throughout the Jewish community of Argentina
• Volunteering with the elderly and greening efforts in the community of Safed, Israel with Livnot U’lehibanot

Students return to campus with a renewed sense of their Jewish identity and their role in tikkun olam, repairing the world. Students spend time discussing ways of continuing their efforts back in Santa Cruz and their home communities and becoming advocates for social justice at home and around the world.