Thanks to a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation, Handmaker, in collaboration with Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS), began hosting a monthly Shabbat Lunch and Learn program in October, free of charge to older adults. The intention of the program is to give aging adults a no-cost opportunity to connect and socialize with others while enjoying a kosher lunch and a kosher shabbat meal to take home with them, as they also learn about topics related to healthy aging, and services that are available to them in our community.
The October Shabbat Lunch and Learn featured JFCS’s Financial Wellness Coach Molly Quale. After enjoying a delicious lunch, the attendees learned some tips on budgeting and financial wellness from Molly, and then took home a meal for Shabbat that evening, along with votives, grape juice, and challah to make the meal complete.
Arts for All Founder Marcia Berger, PT was the guest speaker at the most recent November Shabbat Lunch and Learn. Conversation prompts placed at each table helped participants to get to know one another as they enjoyed lunch. After lunch they learned about the positive effect that engaging with the arts has on body, mind, and soul. All attendees took home a Shabbat meal to enjoy that evening.
Attendees of this program have so far been thrilled with the program, and some sent kind notes, or added comments to the program survey expressing their gratitude:
“I think this is a wonderful idea. And the idea of tempting people with ‘well , you won’t have time to cook, so here’s your shabbat dinner’ clearly went over well.”
“Thank you for providing such a wonderful adventure. For me, it was so wonderful to be “waited on.” The food was just great. And the Shabbat meal (wow!). It was so complete.”
“Thank you so much for a delightful afternoon on Nov.10. The lunch food and the Shabbat dinner were really delicious.”
The next Shabbat Lunch and Learn is planned for December 8. Dr. Allan Anderson, the Medical Director of the Toole Family Memory Center at Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Tucson will be talking about Memory, Forgetfulness and Aging.
There is no cost to attend, but reservations are required. For more information or to RSVP please contact Nanci Levy at 520-322-3632 or nlevy@handmaker.org.
