Programs, Drives, and Volunteer & Service Opportunities
Samaritan House Backpack Drive
Now Through Friday, July 30
Help students return to class this next year with confidence—give to Samaritan House’s Backpack Drive!
Once again, Samaritan House has streamlined a safe system for the backpack giveaway, which will take place in early August. Client families will have the opportunity to pick-up brand-new backpacks filled with school supplies during a designated drive-through time slot.
The need is growing across our community. Join in the efforts to fight poverty and lift lives, one family at a time.
Visit Samaritan House’s special Backpack Drive web page to purchase a backpack for a young student in need. The deadline for contributions is Friday, July 30.
All donations of fully assembled backpacks will only be conducted online. Samaritan House is not accepting walk-in backpack donations.
Make Lunches for Samaritan House
Saturdays: August 14; September 11; October 9; November 13; December 11
Register
Do a mitzvah (good deed) and make sandwiches for our neighbors at the Samaritan House. On the second Saturday of the month, please make 20 sack lunches. Each lunch should include:
- A sandwich. It can be deli meat, peanut butter & jelly, a cheese sandwich, tuna salad, or egg salad. Your choice.
- A piece of fruit – apple, orange, banana
- A small bag of baby carrots
- A single serving package (1.5-2oz) of either cookies or potato chips.
- A juice box or water
- Napkin
Please decorate your lunch bags and/or include a note of kindness.
Deliver your lunch bags to the back door of the Samaritan House kitchen located at 4031 Pacific Blvd in San Mateo at 10:00 am.
Registration required. Only sign up one person to represent your household. Each person signed up will need to make 20 lunches. If you have any questions, please contact Michele at msolomon@pjcc.org.
JFCS Food Banks High Holiday Community Food Drive
Tuesday, August 27 – Tuesday, September 27
Join us in supporting Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ High Holiday Food Drive! The need for food in our community has increased 10x since the start of the pandemic. Groceries from JFCS Food Banks provide over 10,000 meals each month for people in our community who are struggling. JFCS needs our help to keep the Food Banks stocked!
If you or someone your care about needs assistance, JFCS is ready to help. Call JFCS’ Critical Helpline at 415-449-3700.
The most needed items now are:
- Paper bags to deliver groceries in
- Soup (hearty dry soups, like Bear Mountain, or regular canned soup)
- Peanut Butter
- Jam/Jelly
- Mac n cheese
- Rice
- Cold cereal
- Tomato products of any kind including spaghetti sauce
- Canned fruit
- Canned vegetables (peas, corn, and green beans)
- Canned tuna
- Canned salmon
- Canned chicken
- Canned chili, stew, or pasta meals
- Toothpaste
- Lotion
- Soap
While all donations are so appreciated, JFCS cannot accept highly perishable dairy items such as milk, cottage cheese, and other soft cheeses. Thank you.
Grappling with Race in America
The North Peninsula Jewish Community and the Jewish Community Relations Council present a series of three lectures exploring the experience of Black People and People of Color in America and the many aspects of injustice manifest in our society. We will be guided in our learning by experts and leaders in their fields, who will invite us to ask hard questions and draw our own conclusions.
The Black Experience in America from Reconstruction to Today
March 4, 7:00-8:30 pm
View the recording of this presentation.
How have the politics and polices in our country since Reconstruction led to the racism and injustice of our time?
Dr. Peniel Joseph, Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and Barbara Jordan Chair of Ethics and Political Values, University of Texas, Austin.
Perspectives on Criminal Justice Reform and Police Reform
March 11, 7:00-8:30 pm
View the recording of this presentation.
How does inequity in our criminal justice system and in the process of policing manifest in the Bay Area and across the country? Featuring Dr. Paul Henderson, Director of the San Francisco Police Oversight Office.
The State of Educational Equity in California
April 8, 7:00 pm
View the recording of this presentation.
How do discrimination and inequity manifest in California’s educational system and what impact does this have on the lives of Black people, People of Color, and the poor? Featuring Natalie Wheatfall-Lum, Director of Policy, Education Trust-West.
Sponsored by Peninsula Temple Beth El, Peninsula Temple Sholom, Peninsula Sinai Congregation, Peninsula Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.
We believe that respecting and discussing diverse opinions and perspectives is what makes us a strong and vital community. We are committed to promoting civil discourse and being a “living room” where discussions on challenging topics can take place in open, inviting, and respectful ways.
Sign Up to Be a Vaccination Volunteer
Want to help people at vaccination sites but don’t know where to begin? Vax Volunteers is a grassroots effort started by healthcare and public health professionals to match volunteers with organizations where they can make a significant impact on vaccine distribution. Both medical and non-medical volunteers will be crucial to the success of the vaccine campaign to combat COVID-19. We are all in this together – everyone’s contribution, from vaccinators to greeters to traffic control, gets us one step closer to getting the majority of our country vaccinated.
For more information, visit the VaxVolunteers website.
Want a personal perspective on volunteering? Read this recent article from J.Weekly.
Get more information and sign up today!
Make a Difference in Our Community Now
Serve with Second Harvest Food Bank
Second Harvest needs help with sorting and distribution. Visit their website for ways you can help.
Support Jewish Family and Children’s Services
JFCS needs to stock their food pantries for clients and community members who are looking for groceries. Here’s how you can donate:
- The San Mateo office is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm and groceries can be dropped at the front desk. Their address is 2001 Winward Way #200, San Mateo, 94404.
- JFCS is happy to send a volunteer to pick up groceries from your home.
- Safeway gift cards can be purchased on Amazon and e-mailed to Miriamm@JFCS.org.
- If you would like to be Food Runners or deliver groceries from their office to clients, sign up to volunteer on our online application: https://www.jfcs.org/volunteer-application.
For more information on Jewish Family & Children’s Services, go to https://www.jfcs.org
Become a Foster Parent!
There are San Mateo County children currently placed outside of the County due to a lack of local families available to foster. Help to bring these kids back to our community! Opening your heart to a child in foster care can be an amazingly rewarding experience. You can make a difference in a child’s life. Please visit www.helpsanmateokids.com to get more information on how you can help kids in need.
Black History Month Resources
Get Involved: Be a Smithsonian Digital Volunteer
Help make African American history accessible to the world by becoming a Smithsonian digital volunteer!
As a “volunpeer,” you can log in to the Smithsonian Transcription Center, select an African American historical document, and then transcribe—type—what you read into a new, electronically searchable document that will shine light on some of the untold stories of the African American experience. Help current and future genealogists, historians, students, and scholars—anyone with access to the internet—learn about the full, unvarnished history of this nation.
Learn more at the Smithsonian Transcription Center website.
Resources
Books for Adults
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Children’s Books
I Am Rosa Parks by Brad Meltzer
Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment by Parker Curry and Jessica Curry
Bedtime Inspirational Stories: 50 Amazing Black People Who Changed the World
If You Were a Kid During the Civil Rights Movement by Gwendolyn Hooks
Civil Rights Then and Now: A Timeline of the Fight for Equality in America by Kristina Brooke Daniele
Movies
Get Out
12 Years a Slave
The Hate U Give
Moonlight
Confronting Injustice
As a Jewish organization with a heritage built on an unambivalent call to justice, the PJCC recognizes that we must take a firm stance against the injustice, inequality, and hate that blights our society.
Read the PJCC’s statements on Racism, Injustice, and Solidarity with the Black Community and LGBTQIA + Rights.
Supporting the Black Community
We condemn the senseless killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and all those who came before them. As a diverse PJCC community, we stand with the Black community in this moment. We cannot be silent or stand idly by while people inside and outside our immediate community are in pain and are unsafe because of the color of their skin.
The writer James Baldwin said it best, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
We must advocate for change while also reaching to care for one another and striving to listen to those who are most impacted. We must face this moment head on and work together for change.
Join us—stand up and say “Count Me In” as we work together as a community to educate ourselves, educate our children and take steps to combat racism.
Things You Can Do Right Now
Speak Up and Support Others
Be an UPStander!
We have all been a bystander at one time or another. It can be uncomfortable. Often people do not respond because they do not want to be a target of abuse themselves. Raise you voice when you hear racist remarks. Standing up to racism can be a powerful sign of support. It can also make the offender think twice about their actions. When responding, always assess the situation and never put yourself at risk. Your actions do not need to involve confrontation.
Make Your Home a Safe Zone
Ten-year-old Cruz of Burlingame invites the Peninsula community to come together and put up signs of support in our windows. He says, “I want my generation to come together and be kind to each other. Love more. Smile more. I know we can stand together and see past color and see people for who they are inside. We all have beautiful skin.” Join Cruz and put a sign in your window showing your support for the Black community.
Educate Yourself
Take Action
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) is a national network of groups and individuals organizing for racial justice. Join a local SURJ Chapter and get engaged with the struggle for racial justice in our community.
Get More Weekly Action Tips
Our partner 2 for Seder has begun to send “Weekly Action Tips” with suggestions for small, meaningful activities you can do. Each Action Tip is effective against the bigger picture of hate and anti-Semitism. Most activities are quick and the most effective ones for you will involve an activity that you are already doing. Sign up today!
Educate Your Children
Talking to Your Kids about Race: A (Virtual) Conversation
How should parents talk to their children and teens about race? In this video, brought to you by the The Parent Education Series, they bring together a distinguished panel of experts to address this question, and to offer insights into an often difficult, fraught subject: race in America.
Panelists include Julie Lythcott-Haims, JD, MFA: Former Dean at Stanford, speaker, activist, New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult and Real American: A Memoir; Donald E. Grant, Jr., PhD: Executive Director, Center for Community & Social Impact, Pacific Oaks College; Eric Abrams, MBA: Chief Inclusion Officer, Stanford Graduate School of Education; and Kareem Graham, PhD: Senior Scientist (Immunologist), author of “White parents, talk to your kids about race” (San Francisco Chronicle, Opinion, June 9, 2020).
Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup from Pretty Good
31 Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance
Talking With Children About Racism, Police Brutality and Protests by Laura Markham
IsraAID
Help Distribute Vital Relief Supplies to Our Communities
Volunteer to ensure the provision of vital supplies to the most vulnerable communities. As partof our COVID-19 response, we are seeking volunteers to sort, assemble and distribute food packages at regional distribution centers. Current locations of operation: Los Angeles & San Francisco Bay Area.
Criteria to volunteer: Age 14+ (16+ for Santa Clara operation); Ability to lift up to 25 pounds; Active health insurance; US citizenship/permanent resident; Access to a car.
Teen volunteers are eligible to receive volunteer credits upon completion of volunteer shifts.
Register today and make a difference!
Shalom Bayit
Right now, everyone is being told that staying at home is the safest thing to do. Unfortunately, staying home is not safe for those who are in abusive relationships, who are now having to stay at home with their abusers. During Shelter-In-Place, the Bay Area has reported an increase in domestic violence related ER visits and 9-1-1 calls. It is more difficult than ever for victims to access the safety and support they need. Survivors of domestic violence often report that community silence and the feeling of being alone are part of the trauma of abuse.
In the spirit of Kol Yisrael Arevim zeh ba-zeh, we are leading an effort to let survivors of abuse know that their Jewish community is here to support them. If you have someone you’re worried about right now, this is the time to message or call them. They might not be able to safely speak with you, but if you reach out they will know that you are there for them. If they are able to get a private minute, let them know that they don’t deserve to be abused, that it isn’t their fault, and that help is available.
Let them know that they can call Shalom Bayit’s free, confidential helpline: 866-SHALOM-7.
Friends and family of the person being abused are also welcome to call to get ideas for how to support.
Learn more about Shalom Bayit on their website.
Additional Opportunities to Serve
The PJCC partners with several agencies to do good, including IsraAID, Mission Hospice, the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL), Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS), Samaritan House, and more.
Stay tuned for more ways to serve partner organizations alongside the PJCC, or check the “Ideas for Getting Involved” tab for additional drives & service opportunities!
