Student bakers fight hunger with challah

Students mix challah dough and chat with friends at Brown RISD’s Challah for Hunger chapter. /ARIEL BROTHMAN

When I was in college – which was not that long ago – a professor assigned us a video project wherein we had to show our interpretation of the city where we lived and attended school. I chose to contrast a series of starkly dark landscapes (the Canadian city was/is in an economic recession) against the warm and bright colors of the time I spent with friends. I filmed at two friends’ houses, where we spontaneously made food, danced and sang, and chased each other around the house with various kitchen utensils, laughing and shouting and falling the whole time. I still look back on that video fondly; there is no experience quite like making food with your friends.

But there’s something even better than making food with your friends: making food with your friends for a good cause.

That’s exactly what is taking place in the Brown RISD Hillel kitchen every Thursday evening. Challah for Hunger, a national initiative with a goal of providing food for the hungry in communities throughout the country, “brings people together to bake and sell challah to raise money and awareness for social justice” and “make[s] a difference in the world by investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs, social activists, and philanthropists,” according to the group’s website. With 78 student-run chapters, young adults across the country are doing everything from mixing dough to selling the finished challot in their communities to raise money for the hungry.

Proceeds from the sale of the 48 Kosher challot that the students bake every week are split between a national organization, which is chosen by Challah for Hunger, and a local organization chosen by each chapter. Challah for Hunger has selected the national organization Mazon, which, according to its website, “works to ensure that hungry people have access to nutritious food today and demands government policies assure no one goes hungry tomorrow.” The other half of the proceeds goes to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

Katherine Boorstein and Roy Chen, the two students currently in charge of Brown RISD’s Challah for Hunger chapter, inherited the task from their predecessors, who first brought the group to the Hillel kitchen.

When I reached out to the group a few weeks ago to see if I could come to an upcoming baking session, Boorstein warned that they weren’t expecting a large number of bakers since it was final-exam time at Brown. So it was a pleasant surprise to both Boorstein and Chen that most of the regulars came ready to bake.

The bakers broke into two groups, and the work and conversation began. It came up more than once that baking was a great way to blow off steam and to catch up with friends. Measuring, mixing and kneading, they discussed which classes they had taken and which they were excited to take, the idea of being “super Jewish” versus “not even that Jewish,” their favorite challah flavors, and anything else people talk about. It was a relaxed environment where students could hang out, talk about life and give back to the community.

In any case, it doesn’t matter here how Jewish you are since the group welcomes people of all backgrounds.

“The national organization was founded on the values of tzedakah and giving,” explains Boorstein, “and this is a way to extend those values beyond the walls of Hillel.”

Chen, who isn’t Jewish, says that this was his first point of contact with the Jewish world.

“[A few years ago], a former Hillel employee offered to teach me Hebrew once a week. And that went on for, like, a year and a half.” He smiles and adds, “Where else would that happen?”

Boorstein and Chen say most of their clients are students and faculty who stumble upon their sales, and they also sell challah to a number of committees on campus as well as to Hillel for its Shabbat dinners (which take place every Friday and are free!).

“We like to poke our noses into everything,” says Boorstein, smiling.

The group produces regular and chocolate chip challot every week, plus a special flavor chosen by the group’s baking manager, Natalie Roe, who is also a student. This week, the flavor was masala, but in the past it has been cinnamon bun, sun-dried tomato and Nutella.

If you’re in need of challah and want to support a great cause, stop by the bake sale every Friday at noon in the Blue Room in Brown’s Student Center, 75 Waterman St., in the Stephen Robert Campus Center in Faunce House. Make sure to come early – they usually sell out!

ARIEL BROTHMAN is a freelance writer who lives in Wrentham, Mass. She was the summer intern at The Jewish Voice in 2012.