LONGMEADOW– Last week Rachel’s Table hosted their event Bountiful Bowls at Bay Path University to celebrate their 25 years of serving the community as well as honoring Andrea Goldstein and the family of Anne and Jack Robinson, Betsy and Joel Bertuzzi, and Ina and Richard Werman for their dedication to alleviating hunger in Western Massaschusetts.

With more than 200 volunteers at six days a week Rachel’s Table collects food from restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and caterers and delivers it to local agencies including shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries.  Rachel’s Table serves more than 40 agencies in Longmeadow, Springfield, West Springfield, Chicopee, Indian Orchard, Feeding Hills and Holyoke.

At the event on Thursday a video created by a team board member highlighted the impact that Rachel’s Table volunteers and staff have made in the area. Director of Rachel’s Table Debbie Rubenstein has been associated with Rachel’s Table for the past 15 years, and she highlighted the importance of their volunteers.

“The Rachel’s Table volunteers are amazing.  From the teens, to those in their 90’s, each and every one of them inspires me every day to think of new and innovative ways to help our hungry neighbors.  I can’t think of a better organization that I would want to dedicate my time to.  It’s impacting our local community to children and families in this area and I just, I hope for another 25 years of this fabulous organization,” Rubenstein said.

Joan Rosenbaum, a volunteer of Rachel’s Table reflected in the video how important her volunteer work is in the community.

“I have been a volunteer of this community for many years, but I must say, that when I finish my shift dispatching for Rachel’s Table, I feel so good and so sure that I have made a real difference,” Rosenbaum reminisced.

Another long-time volunteer of Rachel’s Table, George Dickinson, enjoys not only feeding the hungry but also meeting people involved.

“For the last 15 or 16 years I’ve been working at Rachel’s Table and I love what I’ve been doing.  Especially going up to Northampton and Holyoke and meeting all the great people.  It’s not so much that they’re great people, but they’re giving people; they want to help,” Dickinson shared.

The Bountiful Bowls event honored several of the agencies that they service and representatives from the Salvation Army, the Springfield Rescue Mission, and Holyoke Health Center came to the event and shared their sentiments of what Rachel’s Table has done for their organizations.

The Salvation Army’s Social Services Director Danielle LaTille expressed her appreciation for Rachel’s Tables donations at a time when the Salvation Army desperately needed it.

“Years ago, a mother came to us in our pantry with tears in her eyes and she absolutely needed a birthday cake or some sort of cupcake or something to give to her child for his birthday.  Fortunately, Rachel’s Table had just come and donated a massive amount of birthday cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. 

With that, that’s something that we continue to do to this day, and it’s just something that we wouldn’t be able to do without Rachel’s Table,” LaTille said.

Ron Willoughby, Springfield Rescue Mission’s Executive Director and CEO, brought up how important Rachel’s Table’s help is all the time, but especially around the holidays.

“We were looking for donations for our Easter meal, and who comes across but Rachel’s Table to our needs.  When you stop to think about it, a lot of the holidays for the homeless, that’s a very down time for them, it’s a depressing time.  Because of this organization and because of what we do and because of their help and our partnership we were able to brighten their days and we’re very grateful for that,” Willoughby shared.

As the Director of Rachel’s Table, Debbie Rubenstein was able to honor Andrea Goldstein, a longtime volunteer and money-raiser for the organization.  Rubenstein shared that Goldstein is a nurse, mother, daughter and friend.

Throughout her time being involved with Rachel’s Table, Goldstein has come up with multiple projects and ways to raise money for the cause.  Rubenstein said Goldstein “combined her love for bargain shopping” with an ongoing rivalry with a friend to see who could save the most money.  Out of this friendly competition, Rachel’s Table Food-Raiser was born.

Goldstein has created Rachel’s Table’s kosher food program called Essentials.  She’s also raised over $13,000 through her various efforts, including selling items on the Facebook page Longmeadow Swap.  

Though Goldstein was being honored that night, during her “thank you speech”, she took the time to share an additional fund-raising idea she’s had through a series of anecdotes that kept the crowd laughing.

“I had planned an elaborate speech to discuss my ‘shopping issue’ and how I’ve pursued better living through Facebook and coupons, but I’m going to say a few words about another project that I’ve been thinking of that I’d like everyone to think about.  Simply stated, it’s celebrating your birthday by spending the amount of your age at a market and bringing that food to one of our agencies at Rachel’s Table,” Goldstein chuckled and joked, “For example, last year, I spent $29 and we brought the food to the rescue mission.”

On a more serious note, Goldstein stated she believes by volunteering and helping others we can bring light to the times of darkness we’re facing.

“I think what we can do is we can feed people, we can feed children, and that’s how we can bring light into the world.  I’m truly fortunate to be here,” she said.

While Rachel’s Table was celebrating their 25 years servicing the community, it was a consensus of the evening to look to the future and to plan for the next 25 years, or as Rubenstein said, “the next 125 years.”