You Say Potato, I Say תפוח אדמה

This morning we took to the fields outside Rishon LeZion to get our hands dirty volunteering for Leket Israel, the country’s leading food rescue organization. We learned about the Leket mission to rescue healthy, surplus food and deliver it to those in need through partner nonprofit organizations.

We did our small, but meaningful part today to help eliminate the problem of food insecurity in Israel by harvesting potatoes (a hardy, shelf-stable vegetable). We worked in two lines to dig as deeply in the sandy soil as we could to remove as many potatoes as we could find and then put them in buckets. Altogether, we harvested approximately 500 pounds of potatoes (250 kilos), which will be distributed to 125 people in need. Yasher Koach to our hardworking Class of 2023 farmers!

Ayalon Institute

Afterward, we headed to the Ayalon Institute Museum near Rehovot. Here, right under the nose of the British, a factory was created for the production of 9mm bullets for the Sten submachine gun, which was the personal weapon of Palmach fighters. Forty-five young men and women operated the site under complete secrecy (disguised by a delicious-smelling bakery and a noisy laundry) from 1945 until 1948. They produced more than 2.25 million bullets vital to the defeat of the British during the War of Independence. Amazing! On to the desert ….