Communities across London are competing against each other to distribute the greatest number of chicken soup containers in The Great Chicken Soup Challenge for ShabbatUK designed by the Jewish Living aDivision’s Living & Learning team. These containers of chicken soup will be delivered to homeless people in shelters and families in need across various communities who aren’t able to make their own chicken soup but are determined to participate in ShabbatUK.
This initiative extends outside of specific communities and encourages the participants of Tribe’s Ghana Experience to apply their learning about Jewish social responsibility as they too will compete. Their chicken soup will be exclusively delivered to those beyond our community who are vulnerable.
This is a great community initiative that although a simple concept, shows another way that ShabbatUK is bringing communities together. Ahead of ShabbatUK, volunteers will gather in their local synagogue kitchens to cook and then freeze as many containers of chicken soup as possible for distribution So far, there are ten communities participating in the challenge, with the first on Tuesday 12th September at Pinner Synagogue who hope to set the bar for the greatest number of chicken soup containers filled. The synagogue that delivers the greatest number of containers will win a prize.Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein, of the US Living & Learning team and Cockfosters & N. Southgate Synagogue, said: ‘Chicken soup for many of us is synonymous with the traditional Jewish Friday night dinner. It is also synonymous with warmth, care and understanding.
In particular, we want the most vulnerable in our communities and those outside our communities to know that we care about them and their well-being. Sometimes, something as simple as chicken soup can convey that message.
Shabbat should be a time of peace and joy for everyone in our midst. With a small act of kindness, such as delivering chicken soup, we can extend the feeling of Shabbat to all’.