Community Council For The Homeless Says Thanks!

from the CCHFP Fall 2007 Newsletter

Temple Micah 6th graders show off the goods on Yom Kippur morning

Thank You, Temple Micah!

by Katie Wood, Homeless Services Manager

We have sorted and stored the items you donated in plastic bins in our basement, so that those who come into Friendship Place can request exactly what they need.

As the season gets colder, a new pair of socks, an extra layer of clothing with a new t-shirt, and a new pair of underwear helps people who are sleeping on the streets to get through the cold winter nights. It’s a joy for us on the CCHFP staff to be able to offer freely to them — no questions asked — something that is such a basic necessity and contributes so greatly to their well-being and dignity.

For our homeless neighbors, receiving a free gift of new clothing, still in its packaging, is special indeed. Thank you so much, Temple Micah, for providing more than just underwear, but also a way for us to connect and build trust with the people we serve during a hard time in their lives.

Autumn and Underwear!

by Martha Adler, CCHFP Board Member

When I first joined the CCFHP board representing Temple Micah, I asked Sister Mary Griffin, who was administrative director at the time, what concrete project we could involve the congregation in. She told me the homeless clients had abundant sources for donated used clothing but never had access to clean underwear. Thus was born Temple Micah’s Underwear Month in the fall of 2000.

Every year on Rosh Hashanah morning we distribute paper bags (courtesy of Whole Foods Tenley). Congregants return the bags, full of new underwear, on Yom Kippur morning and we load up CCHFP’s van. Micah families continue delivering underwear to Friendship Place throughout October. Over the years, our collection has increased along with the need, from about 2,000 undergarments in the first year to about 5,000 this year.

While initially I ran the collection by myself, I soon enlisted bar/bat mitzvah students to help out. Eventually, the underwear drive became a leadership project for
Micah’s entire sixth grade. The program promotes class unity and helps the students and their families prepare for their mitzvah projects.

Rabbi Zemel has always said it makes sense to hold the Underwear Drive in the autumn around the holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, citing the
Mishnah Succot (Chapter 5, verse 3): “They made wicks from the worn out underwear and girdles of the priests and with them they made torches and candlesticks and there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that did not reflect their light.” In other words, the fall festival of Succot has always been connected with changing underwear.

The Underwear Drive is special to me because it has taken on a life of its own, because everyone in the community is so enthusiastic about it, because it involves
the children so cheerfully and giddily, and because it is emblematic of the Jewish mitzvah of tikkun olam (repairing the world). We are honored to be serving homeless people with CCHFP!