UB’s Challah for Hunger is holding its annual Campus Hunger Awareness Week from Nov. 18-22 in response to roughly 41% of four-year university and community college students who “do not know where their next meal is coming from.”
Challah for Hunger, a national organization taking action against hunger, will be selling and delivering fresh challah, a Jewish pastry, for $3 throughout the Buffalo area. Chabad of Buffalo has offered its house and supplies for the cause. Students on the Chabad board and Greek Life volunteers will be baking the challah. Patrons must preorder challah through Challah for Hunger’s online form by Nov. 15 and the group will bake and deliver the orders on Sunday Nov. 17. All proceeds will go toward local hunger relief through FeedMore WNY, a collaboration between The Food Bank and Meals on Wheels.
Eli Winkelman, the organization’s founder who began the program while attending Scripps College in 2004, realized she could use baking to educate others. She began selling challah and donating the profits to social justice organizations such as Meals on Wheels. Fifteen years later, Challah for Hunger has over 80 campus chapters across the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia, one of which is at UB.
Madison Fertig, UB’s Challah for Hunger president and senior psychology major, believes there isn’t enough awareness of food insecurity among college students.
“I know we all joke that we are starving college students, but there really are an obscene amount of students that don’t know where they are getting their next meal from,” Fertig said. “And it really isn’t talked about enough.”
The organization will be selling six types of challah including plain, cinnamon sugar, s’mores, funfetti, cinnamon bun and garlic bread.
Lauren Sokol, UB Challah for Hunger treasurer and junior communication major, feels there is not enough recognition for the hard work low-income students invest in their education.
“It’s incredible that these students are working so hard in these conditions to receive an education, but it is so unfair that they have to worry about these things,” Sokol said. “For a lot of us, our parents are depositing money into our accounts every week. But there are so many people that do not have this luxury and are working so hard to get to a better place in life.”
Patrons can pay for the Challah when it is delivered or prepay using Venmo. The organization also accepts monetary donations toward hunger relief.
Shaina Stillman, a sophomore psychology major, is the organization’s advocacy chair and believes that working to better your community is important for students.
“We’re all too worried about our own school work and lives,” Stillman said. “It’s important to take a second to think about other students struggling. Even if it is just clicking a link and ordering challah.”
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