Everyday Heroes: Westside Food Bank volunteer Bruce Rosen

Too many kids go to bed hungry. Too many moms reluctantly pour half a glass of milk at dinner to make sure there is some left for breakfast, and too many dads apologetically ask their kids to hang on until breakfast at school.

So today I give thanks for the everyday heroes who fill our food banks. One shining example is my friend Bruce Rosen, a Board member of the Westside Food Bank, who not only works tirelessly to alleviate hunger, but has created an incredible opportunity for the community to participate.

Take the innovative “fruit for a cause” program he spearheaded at the food bank, which invites you to replace floral displays and table centerpieces with beautiful and meaningful displays of fruit that are later donated to the food bank. Not only does this program offer a chance to do something essential, but Bruce does all the legwork — buys the fruit, sets it up, and whisks it to the food bank to be distributed that week. (That clinched it for our kids’ B’Nei Mitzvah!)

Although it has grown to include dozens of congregations, the idea started with one, at our synagogue Kehillat Israel. Over twenty years, Bruce estimates that the program (averaging 100 displays a year, with 150 pounds of fruit in each display) has yielded about 300,000 pounds of fruit since its inception. That’s 300,000 pounds of healthy nourishment that would not have happened.

Maybe you want to try fruit instead of flowers at your celebration. Maybe you want to start building your area’s own “fruit for a cause,” one celebration at a time. Bruce said he would love to talk to you. His contact info is here.