Every October, the cavernous SHARE Food Program’s warehouse becomes home to hundreds of bright orange tote bags, each heavy with cans of tuna fish, sardines, beans, jars of peanut butter — altogether, over 50,000 pounds of nourishing food. The food is collected during the Jewish Federation’s Mitzvah Food Program’s High Holiday Food Drive and destined for the Jewish Federation’s five pantries across Greater Philadelphia, to supplement food orders for four months. The substantial task of sorting the collected food for delivery is taken on each year by the Women’s Philanthropy group at the Jewish Federation. An intergenerational mix of women take a Monday to come together to organize each donation: tossing expired or crushed food, separating out any non-Kosher items, and finally, sorting each item into categories. Once sorted, the food is stored at SHARE, then trucked to its destinations, ready for client orders.

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