Another year has passed and again Passover is approaching. As we gather with friends and family to celebrate our people’s freedom from bondage, we must also do more to liberate those who remain enslaved by hunger and poverty. Nearly 50 million Americans—including 17 million children—live on the edge of hunger. It is a tragic situation, but also one we can fix.

TBA, led by the Social Action Committee, is committed to fighting hunger. We do so with our monthly Monday Night Suppers at the First Baptist Church. And we will have a special program on May 17 at TBA, co-sponsored with Temple Shalom of Salem, with activist Rabbi Margie Klein, on A Jewish Response to Homelessness. It will include a discussion of what else our congregations can do to alleviate hunger and homelessness.

For the months of April, May, and June, as has been done in past years, we will be collecting boxes of cereal for donation in honor of counting the omer. Counting the omer has an agricultural basis. The omer was a daily offering of grain brought to the Temple in Jerusalem between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. Please bring cereal whenever you come to TBA—for school, for meetings, and for services.

Early in the Passover seder, we say, “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” Please give meaning to that invitation by discussing hunger in America and what we can do about it.

Before your seder begins, you might collect tzedakah. One good place to send it is MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. By donating to MAZON (www.mazon.org), you symbolically observe the Jewish tradition of not starting any celebration until the poor in the community have been fed.

MAZON (“food” in Hebrew) is dedicated to preventing and alleviating hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds. Throughout more than 25 years of advocacy efforts and strategic grant-making, MAZON has helped millions of hungry and impoverished men, women, and children receive the sustenance they need to thrive.

I wish you and your family all the joys of the Passover season.