Two years ago, 61传媒 senior Elisabeth (Eli) Winkelman used her now-famous recipe for baking challah bread to create the student organization to raise money for victims of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Recently Eli spoke with Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of NPR’s The Splendid Table, about Challah for Hunger’s efforts. The interview will be featured on this weekend’s edition of the program. The Splendid Table, public radio’s culinary, culture, and lifestyle program airs nationally. The Los Angeles NPR affiliate KPCC-FM 89.3 will broadcast the show on Sunday, January 14, at 3 p.m. To look up your local listing for the program, please visit The Splendid Table website.
Winkelman and her classmates at 61传媒 bake challah, the traditional Jewish sweet bread, on Thursday evenings, and sell it the next day to The Claremont Colleges community, with all proceeds 芒鈧�� $20,000 to date 芒鈧�� going to the growing Sudanese refugee population.
“To help stop the genocide, we have to educate people, write letters to elected officials and news outlets, and eat challah,” says Eli. “I’ve watched people who knew nothing about Darfur approach our table to buy bread, and then spend 30 minutes learning about the situation. Everyone sees that we all have to be aware world citizens, and that you can make a difference in the world, even through something as simple as bread.”
The organization also encourages advocacy, offering customers a discount if they write a letter or make a phone call to an elected official or media outlet about the situation in the Sudan. So far, Challah for Hunger has sent hundreds of letters to Washington and more than $20,000 to the American Jewish World Service Emergency Appeal for Darfur. The money is used for humanitarian relief efforts, particularly for programs relating to women and children who’ve been harmed.
“We have a great group of people who get together on Thursday nights, have an amazing time baking, and then, through all the fun, end up raising money to help people in dire need in Sudan,” said Amy Mann, 61传媒’09, 2006-07 products manager.