Table to Table, Targum Shlishi – Table to Table Fresh Produce for Children’s Project, Ra’anana, Israel
Targum Shlishi continued its support of this program, established in 2005, which provides Jewish and Arab children from the economically depressed Jaffa area with fresh produce and dairy products on a regular basis. The food – a half ton each week – is distributed to hundreds of children daily through distribution to after-school programs and directly to families. In addition, Targum Shlishi’s funding helped support Table to Table’s public relations activities, which included employing a part-time public relations officer and then recruiting the assistance of an external public relations consultant. Table to Table is Israel’s largest food rescue organization, proving approximately ten thousand meals and twenty tons of produce and perishable items weekly to Israel’s needy. It gathers food from catered events, corporate cafeterias, army bases, farms, and food manufacturers.
The Peres Center for Peace, general support, Tel Aviv, Israel
The Peres Center for Peace’s position is that sustainable peace and stability can only be developed through the elevation of social and economic capacities. Accordingly, the Peres Center’s mission is to build an infrastructure of peace and reconciliation by and for the people of the Middle East that promotes socio-economic development while advancing cooperation and mutual understanding. The Peres Center’s peacebuilding activities are based on four primary pillars: people-to-people dialogue and interaction; capacity-building through cooperation; nurturing a culture of peace in the region’s youth; and humanitarian responses. An independent, non-partisan, non-governmental organization, the Peres Center was founded in 1996 by Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister, current President of Israel, and 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate.
Colel Chabad, Food for the Poor During and After Conflict with Hezbollah, Safed
As a result of weeks of bombing by Hezbollah during summer 2006, some 25,000 residents of northern Israel who typically manage on their own were left facing severe food shortages during the High Holy Days. Targum Shlishi joined forces with two other philanthropists, Van Greenfield and Peter Neustadter, to donate funds to feed the needy in the northern Israeli city of Safed. Colel Chabad mobilized its employees and recruited volunteers to help meet the challenge of increasing its typical holiday food program, which provides for 19,000 families, to provide for the additional 25,000 in need. Colel Chabad, established in 1788, is the oldest continuously operating social services organization in Israel. Its objective is to provide meaningful material help, and especially food, to needy Jews living in Israel. Colel Chabad runs thirteen soup kitchens, meals on wheals, and several other programs and it offers help unconditionally without regard to background or degree of religious observance.
Friends of Israel Defense Forces, Ambulance, Israel
Targum Shlishi joined forces with other funders (Van Greenfield, Peter Neustadter, and Marvin Hass) to underwrite the purchase of a special ambulance for wounded Israeli soldiers. The ambulance was dedicated in honor of Israel’s soldiers. Friends of Israel Defense Forces helps support social, educational, and recreational programs and facilities for Israeli soldiers.
The Rosh Pina Mainstreaming Network, Kaleidoscope Initiative: Horfesh Community Learning Center and Field of Dreams, Horfesh and Maghar, Israel
The Rosh Pina Mainstreaming Network uses a school-based approach to empower Israeli children and teens with the social and emotional skills with which to succeed socially and academically. In 2006 Targum Shlishi supported two of the organization’s projects, the Horfesh Community Learning Center and Field of Dreams. The Horfesh Community Learning Center provides special education services for children in Horfesh, a Druze village located in the Western Galilee. Providing these services to Druze students within their own community is a model of special needs education that doesn’t exist elsewhere in Israel – special education students typically need to travel long distances to receive the services they require. The Center provides services directly to the children, like a recreational enrichment center and paraprofessional therapies. It also focuses on building community awareness and programming so that the children can be more integrated within the community. The second project Targum Shlishi supported, Field of Dreams, is a program that helps at-risk children in the Lower Galilee Druze village Maghar develop positive self-esteem, good interpersonal skills, improved academic achievement, and overall improved well-being.
Yad Eliezer, Food Donations, Israel
Yad Eliezer provides low-income families with both short-term relief in the form of food donations and with long-term solutions aimed to help them achieve financial stability. The organization runs more than twelve different food and social service programs and provides services to more than fifty thousand people in seventeen cities across Israel. Targum Shlishi supported various food donation initiatives in 2006.