Mitzvah Project: Cereal Donation

We read about a great project that we couldn’t wait to share from Brookline Wicked Local.

Jack Friedman, a 7^th grade student from Brookline, Massachusetts, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on June 14, 2014.

For his Mitzvah Project, he collected and donated more than 300 boxes of cereal to the Pine Street Inn located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Pine Street Inn serves more than 1,600 homeless individuals daily and 9,500 annually, providing the full spectrum of services to help men and women reach their highest level of independence and get back to a place they can call home.

Picture at left: Jack Friedman stands in front of a van filled with cereal he collected for the Pine Street Inn.

We asked Jack some question to learn more about his Mitzvah Project:

MM: Why did you decide to take on this particular project?
JF: Every person becoming a Bar Mitzvah is expected to perform a mitzvah, a good deed or a charitable act. I chose the Pine Street Inn because of my family’s previous relationship and connections. Ever since I was born, my family has been supporting the Pine Street Inn. My dad tells me he feels we are lucky and we need to give to less fortunate people. Representatives from the homeless shelter estimate that my donation would supply breakfast to about 500 people over three days.

MM: Why did you chose cereal?
JF: I chose cereal because there was a big need for breakfast, and also the fact that I eat cereal for breakfast nearly every day myself. When I first heard out about this from the staff at Pine Street Inn, they told me one other person does this. They challenged me to get more boxes than this other person. No way I was going to let this other person beat me! I jumped to start this project as soon as I could.

MM: How did you go about getting the donations?
JF: We did a school fundraiser at Baker where I challenged each class to donate as many boxes as they could. I spoke at my temple, Temple Emeth, and asked that they contribute. They were nice enough to let me put a large donation box in the entrance. It filled up quickly, so I had to ask my parents to help me empty it. I play for the Brookline PeeWee hockey team, and many of my teammates helped me too.

Jack and his donations