GrowTorah Monthly Newsletter - November 20, 2021 | Kislev 16, 5782

Dear GrowTorah Farmily,

As Chanuka approaches and the change in weather brings new experiences into our lives, GrowTorah continues to teach every day of the week in our school garden programs, reveling in the wonders of creation with our students. We are thinking deeply about how best we can share resources on this planet, inspired by the Vayishlach D’var Torah you’ll find linked below.

In this edition, we continue to feature different Shorashim and Anafim partner school programs, our Tu B’shvat booking is filling up, and we’ve got some wonderful Chanuka resources for you. We also cover some of our adult events that we started offering.

Thank you for your continued support over the past 5 years and into the future.

Sara Just-Michael & Yosef Gillers, Co-executive Directors

GET INVOLVED

BOOK US FOR TU B’SHVAT 🌱

Looking for ways to engage your school or shul in an interactive Tu B’shvat activity? Our Tu B’Shvat workshops include Shmita themes and environmental stewardship through experiential lessons. We will offer our programming throughout the whole month of Shvat (and maybe a bit more) to allow for as many organizations to work with us as possible, and spots are filling up fast!

WEEKLY ENVIRONMENTAL TORAH 🌎

Land stewardship, responsible resource use, and Tefillah are some of the many inspiring topics that have been discussed in our previous Parsha Blogs. This weekly offering weaves Divrei Torah with environmental action, featuring writers from across the world.

CHANUKA RESOURCES 🕯

Happy Kislev! This month we’ve got frosty mornings and cold weather gardening with our students - the PERFECT opportunity to embrace the lessons of Chanuka - seeking and spreading the LIGHT amidst darkness. Looking for activities to try at home and help you get ready for Chanuka? Enjoy our resources here.

PROGRAM UPDATES

RESTAURANT COMPOSTING IN TEANECK! ♻️

We are so excited to finally share that GrowTorah has partnered with two local (Teaneck, NJ) Kosher restaurants to compost their food waste! Welcome to Chopstix and Narutto Bowl to our restaurant composting program! Every week the restaurants bring their compostable materials to our facilities, where our team (and some awesome volunteers) have been processing the compost into fertilizer! Together, we strive to live the Torah value of bal tashchit through managing our waste responsibly.

MELAVA MALKA FOR GROWNUPS! 🍎

Thank you to everyone who came out to our FIRST GrowTorah event for adults! At our “DIY Melava Malka,” we made our own apple cider, hummus, pesto, and memories! We learned Torah together around the fire and shared the impact that experiences in nature have on us and the children we teach.

SHORASHIM & ANAFIM FEATURED PARTNERS:

GROW THE LIGHT

BOARD DINNER RECAP

This month, we were joined by our current board members, incoming board members, farmily, and close partners for dinner to celebrate 5 years of incredible GROWTH! We were hosted by the phenomenal Weisberg family, owners of Moss Cafe, who catered the farm-to-table seasonal deliciousness, spoke with us about food values, and shared inspiring thoughts on Shmita. Rabbi Dr. Jeremy Wieder, YU Rosh Yeshiva and GrowTorah board member, delivered a beautiful d’var Torah on our responsibility to the earth. We then shared some highlights from the past 5 years with everyone, and embarked on a Torah learning workshop - brainstorming how to engage more of our community towards insightful and productive environmental Torah conversations.

The past 5 years have brought us tremendous growth, unimaginable challenges, and beautiful triumphs as people, and as an organization. We are so energized by the team of supporters we have to enter into our next phase of organizational growth!

We extend our gratitude to Ora Sheinson, co-founder of Canfei Nesharim for sharing some of her vision, and for building the foundation of Orthodox environmental work over 20 years ago, along with co-founder Evonne Marzouk. We are honored to carry on your mission!

Finally, we wished a tzeitcheim l’shalom to Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein for his time on our founding board. His guidance and support have been vital to our organization’s health and growth. We will miss you Rav Isaiah!

Thank you all for being our cheerleaders and advisors and for getting GrowTorah to where it is today.

LEADER FAMILY FUND

We are incredibly honored to announce that GrowTorah has been awarded funding from the Leader Family Fund Accelerator in the amount of $5,000. Their funding will help kick off our annual Giving Tuesday campaign!

GIVING TUESDAY IS COMING!

In the past 5 years, we have taught thousands of students and grown from 4 school gardens to 25 partner programs. We believe that our students will cultivate a healthy environmental future, inspired and empowered by their time in our garden programs. Stay tuned for more info next week!