Galil Blog

Hi Galil families, today was a very important day: Yom Tzedek which stands for day of justice. The usual peulot (age group activities), chugim (interest groups), and tochnit erev (evening activity) are replaced with special programming centered around a certain social justice issue. Today’s theme was food justice! I was one of the people responsible for planning and running today, and I’m so happy with how it went.

The day started as normal, with hitkansut (morning flag-raising), breakfast, and avodah (daily jobs), but then we started a food-justice-themed round of activities that included simulating a day at a fast-food job while learning about worker exploitation and a relay race with tied feet to teach about lack fo access to healthy food.

After, we had some serious chugim relating to different aspects of food justice. There was a discussion about fast food’s targeting of minority communities, a workshop about the monopolization of the food industry, a debate about the future of food in capitalist society, and a discussion about veganism and its impact on food consumption trends. All of the discussions went really well, and a lot was learned!

Next was a very special activity: Chopped: Galil Style. Everyone headed to the chadar ochel (dining hall) where we hosted a cooking competition! Each shichva (age group) selected leftover ingredients and was tasked with making a dish for our panel of judges to taste. Everyone had a great time working together to make dishes in a sustainable way.

After dinner we watched a really cute documentary called Biggest Little Farm, which is about a family farm that rejects industrialized methods and uses nature as a tool to grow crops and raise animals. Everyone learned a lot and had a great time as well. Tomorrow we are going to put some of what we learned into action at the Jewish Relief Agency, an organization that helps feed low income families in the greater Philadelphia area. More on that tomorrow, but I must say goodbye for now!

-Jonah