Partners

500 Cups Before Yom Kippur: A Night of Service and Community in Scottsdale

A group of ten volunteers wearing name tags and food-safe gloves smiles together in a meeting room. Behind them, a screen shows the event title, “Oats for a Cause,” with partner logos. Cups of oats sit on a table in the foreground.

Volunteers at Oats for a Cause in North Scottsdale, where they packed 500 cups of overnight oats for neighbors facing food insecurity ahead of Yom Kippur.

In September, a few days before Yom Kippur, Emma Goldblatt of Uri L’Tzedek and her fellow organizers came to North Scottsdale with one goal: 500 cups of overnight oats for community members facing food insecurity. They hit it. Along the way, people who came in as strangers connected as community members. Uri L’Tzedek planned the evening with Arizona Jews for Justice and The Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix as part of Repair the World’s Fall National Days of Jewish Service. In addition to oats, volunteers collected non-perishable donations for the Shalom Pantry High Holiday Food Drive.

Before the work started, the group engaged in Jewish learning. A short teaching, a Dvar Torah, opened with the prophetic reading for Yom Kippur, the Haftarah from Isaiah 57 and 58. In it, the prophet calls out a fast that’s focused on the person fasting and indifferent to the suffering around them. The fast God actually wants looks different: share your bread with the hungry, bring the poor into your home, and don’t turn away from need.

“The idea that each cup of oatmeal honors the spark of G-dliness in the person who receives it gave participants a way to connect a simple, tangible task to a much larger sense of purpose,” Emma said. That framing felt “especially meaningful heading into Yom Kippur, and especially resonant given the current climate for Jewish communities.”

Turnout was smaller than the organizers had hoped, but the goal didn’t move. About 11 people and 500 cups means everyone participates.

“Everyone had to pitch in and work closely together to reach our goal of 500 cups. There was no room to hang back on the sidelines.”

As they worked, people started talking. “The most memorable moment was the sense of community that formed in the room,” Emma said. “People who didn’t know each other before the night ended up working side by side, chatting, and building new relationships within the community.”

Emma credits the small group for that. “It was a reminder that even a smaller turnout can create a tighter, more meaningful experience, and that some of the best community-building happens exactly when a group has to lean on each other to get the job done.” Each individual contributed to hundreds of meals headed to people who needed them, and a sense of pride and purpose heading into the holidays.

“This is a night where you leave having done something concrete, hundreds of meals headed to people who need them, while also walking away with something to carry into the holidays.”