Hazon CA Ride 2010 Mini-Grant Finalists

Camp Tawonga, a Jewish not-for-profit children’s summer camp located near Yosemite National Park, needs a way to protect its compost pile from bears and other wildlife. Tawonga’s educational, organic garden would benefit from the rich soil we could compost from food scraps from the Tawonga kitchen (which serves 1200 meals per day during peak season) if only we had a way to keep the compost secure. A fenced-in enclosure, a bear-proof dumpster, and a series of rotating barrel composters will bring Camp Tawonga one step closer to “zero-waste” while protecting wildlife and teaching campers about sustainable food.

For more info visit our website.

Congregation Beth Sholom’s Gan Yeladim project seeks to establish a working garden for our preschool and Hebrew school students. Creating an outdoor garden will build community around the shared experience of nurturing life and growing the food that is central to so many of the Jewish traditions we celebrate. Working with the youngest members of our community, we are instilling a deep respect for and excitement about our relationship to our planet through the lens of Judaism. The garden will be a demonstration of the practical work the children are undertaking to improve our immediate environment and our hope is that the garden will be an intergenerational meeting place for all our congregants.

For more info visit our website.

Through the Kayamut (“sustainability”) Initiative, Camp Tel Yehudah (TY) will reduce our carbon footprint on the banks of the Jordan and Delaware Rivers. TY is working to become the first carbon-neutral Jewish summer camp in the U.S. by both reducing our carbon emissions and purchasing carbon offsets in Israel through a partnership with the Good Energy Initiative (GEI). A unique project established by the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning & Leadership, GEI works to reduce Greenhouse Gas source production and to support Israeli energy independence by means of energy efficiency and alternative technologies. Through a matching grant from Hazon, we plan to raise money from campers, parents and alumni to purchase $20,000 worth of carbon offsets which will support GEI projects in Israel such as the installation of solar water heaters for low-income public housing. Graduates of our camp will be involved in implementing these projects while participating in Young Judaea’s Israel programs. In addition we will embark on an active educational campaign to reduce our own carbon emissions at camp to and to promote environmental consciousness to our families throughout the year.

For more info visit our website.

Kibbutz Yarok, Camp Newman’s sustainable village, teaches children to connect Judaism and Jewish values to their environment. Our organic garden teaches composting, water conservation, and farming techniques while growing herbs and vegetables that are mentioned in our Torah. Animals that produce food are cared for by the children in the context of the Jewish value of caring for the world. The food and vegetables are served to the entire camp. Energy efficient Mud Huts are engineered and constructed by our campers made entirely of recycled materials or materials of the earth. Grants this year will allow us to make use of a small lake on the site, and learn about solar energy and lighting, in addition to building more mud huts. We are also hoping to enhance and enlarge the organic garden and complete construction of a prayer site overlooking the lake. More than 2,000 children spend time learning at Kibbutz Yarok in the summer and at all our winter retreats.

For more info visit our website.

In 2010, Temple Isaiah, Gan Ilan Preschool and the Contra Costa Jewish Day School would like to establish a CSA for the more than 1000 families in their shared community. A team of committed volunteers, staff and three wonderful local, organic CSA farms – Free Wheelin Farms, Shooting Star CSA and Terra Bella Farms- will help bring the CSA into being. This grant will help us do community outreach and on-site education, visit the farms to learn more, support community service work days at the farms, and create a farmers’ market style CSA at the Temple Isaiah/Gan Ilan/CCJDS campus. We are very excited about having the chance to use our food purchases to help support sustainable agriculture and to help create a healthier, more sustainable community.

For more info visit our website.

The West Philadelphia Community Greenhouse will be a shared resource among community gardeners and urban farmers. The greenhouse will serve as a venue for Jewish Farm School Urban Sustainability workshops, that, drawing on the Jewish tradition of creating just and accessible food systems, teach a variety of sustainable living skills. The greenhouse will be both functional and educational, and will help bring together the diverse communities working to increase access to healthy food throughout the city.

For more info visit our website.

Wilderness Torah has offered its core programs since 2007 – an annual cycle of experiential land-based festivals, including Sukkot on the Farm, Passover in the Desert, Shavuot on the Mountain and Tu B’shvat in the Redwoods – where we gather as pluralistic, multi-generational community to celebrate the seasons and Jewish traditions in their original earth-based context.  During these festivals, we camp, eat and pray together, learn about the connections between Jewish spirituality and environmental awareness, offer sustainable living skills workshops, and celebrate the cycle of the seasons with joyous singing and celebration.  We do this while contextualizing the holidays in their ancient earth-based roots in order to renew the earth-centered meaning and inspiration of these festivals.  

For more info visit our website.

Canfei Nesharim engages synagogues of all denominations in environmental programs tied to times in the Jewish year (Sukkot, Chanukah, Tu b’Shevat, Purim, Pesach, Omer, Shavuot, Three Weeks). Following several years of engagement, participating synagogues are now ready to begin community-wide Green Action. Our next step is creating resources to enable synagogues to begin environmental changes, such as installing renewable energy sources; implementing a recycling program; switching to non-toxic cleaning products; planting a community garden; establishing a community supported agriculture program (CSA); and/or installing water-saving devices. Green Action resources will be made available to the entire Jewish community via our website and email newsletters.

For more info visit our website.

The JCHS School Garden will serve as an outdoor classroom to nurture academic and spiritual growth. By connecting students to their food system as well as the agricultural cycle, the garden will challenge members of the community to contemplate their relationships with the land (both to Israel and the nature more broadly), one another and with Jewish tradition.

For more info visit our website.

The Tav HaYosher, Ethical Seal, is a free service offered to kosher restaurants and to the kosher community that will ensure a worker’s right to adequate pay, allocation of time, and a safe working environment.

For more info visit our website.