As Israel marked three months since the horrific terror attacks and start of the war on October 7th, a group of 49 volunteers from around the world boarded a bus in Jerusalem and headed south to work the fields of Meshek Sechel, a 500-dunam (154 acre) farm filled with cauliflower, fennel, cabbage and kohlrabi.
The volunteers came to Israel to help Israeli farmers as part of Kol Israel’s Israel Food
Rescue initiative of the World Zionist Congress.
With more than 25,000 foreign agricultural workers fleeing Israel to return to their home countries, cessation of permits to Palestinian workers, and many Israelis agriculturists called to reserve duty, there is a severe human capital shortage on Israeli farms, impacting the supply and economic health of the entire country.
Kol Israel, through its Israel Food Rescue program, has been recruiting volunteers ranging in
age from 18 to 80 who are willing to roll up their sleeves and perform physical labor for a
minimum of 5 work days. They are sent to farms most in need to help pick crops, sort produce,
and package food for transport.
Each of the volunteers from Australia, Russia, Holland, Portugal and the United States came to help for the same reason: love of Israel.
Each trip is arranged in direct cooperation with individual farms, explained Alex Zapransky, Israel Food Rescue’s Program Manager, joining half the group in a field of cauliflower, while the rest continued to another location to pick lemons.
“I came to help because I love Israel and it was the right thing to do,” said Carine, a volunteer from San Francisco. “Being here has given me a sense of purpose, a feeling of belonging, and a renewed connection with my Jewish identity,” she explained, adding that this trip has her seriously considering aliyah.
Carine’s sentiment was echoed by others, including Sol, a retired attorney from Washington,
DC, and Nadia, a public relations professional from Moscow, who said her desire to come to
Israel outweighed the challenge of leaving Russia at this time.
“What these volunteers are doing today – and every day – is an expression of pure Zionism,”
said David Yaari, Chairman of Kol Israel who joined to help the volunteers in the field.
Farmer Shaul Ezra said the volunteers “literally saved my farm.” Before they arrived, “I had to throw out 200 dunam (nearly 50 acres) of eggplant and cauliflower because there was no one
here to help. I want to thank these amazing volunteers who saved me and saved my crops.
They and Kol Israel are secret angels for Israel.”
