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IV S
HMITA ACTIVITIES FOR
CHEDERIM & SCHOOLS
Part 1: Primary age children (KS2)
Shmita, food and harvesting our fruit
Total activity time - 1 hour
Learning Objectives
Students to use the Shmita year 5775 to reflect on inequality and those who struggle to meet
their basic needs
Students to be aware that our food comes from all over the world
Students will critically think through the global supply chain
Students will begin to learn about poverty in the UK and how people are helping (food banks)
Curriculum links for schools
KS2 Geography
KS2 Art and Design
Use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate
countries and describe features studied 1
Pupils should be taught:
To improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including
drawing 2
Before the lesson, ask students to look at fruit stickers at home to see where the fruit has come from.
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IV: ACTIVITIES FOR CHEDERIM & SCHOOLS – PART 1
Trigger (5
18
minutes)
Students are given labels and have to draw their favourite fruit on them.
Activity 1
(20 minutes)
1 Stick a world map up on the wall. Invite students to come up with their fruit stickers and place
them where they think that fruit is grown. If there are any fruits that they cannot guess, they can
research it for homework.
2 After a number of students have stuck their stickers, look at the map and ask students which
continent looks like it grows the most fruit.
3 Did they expect fruit to come from so many different places?
4 Does any fruit come from the UK?
In the Jewish calendar, the New Year starts at Rosh Hashanah. This year, from Rosh Hashanah, it
will be the Shmita year. This occurs every seventh year and there are different rules for what we can
and cannot do during the year.
Shemot (Exodus) 23, 10-11
‫ספר שמות פרק כג‬
:‫ַארצֶָך ו ְָאסַ פְ ּתָ אֶ ת ּתְ בּוָאתָ ּה‬
ְ ‫(י) ו ְׁשֵ ׁש ׁשָ נִים ּתִ ז ְַרע אֶ ת‬
:‫(יא) ו ְהַ ּׁשְ בִיעִ ת ּתִ ׁשְ מְ טֶ ּנָה ּונְטַ ׁשְ ּתָ ּה ו ְָאכְלּו אֶ בְיֹנֵי עַ ּמֶ ָך וְי ִתְ ָרם ּת ֹאכַל חַ ּיַת הַ ּׂשָ דֶ ה ּכֵן ּתַ עֲ ׂשֶ ה ְלכ ְַרמְ ָך ְלזֵיתֶ ָך‬
(10) For six years you are to sow your land and to gather in its produce,
(11) but in the seventh, you are to let it go [tishm’tenah] and to let it be [u’nitashta], that the needy of your
people may eat, and what remains, the wildlife of the field shall eat. Do thus with your vineyard, with your
olive-grove.3
Suggested questions
1 What are we meant to do in the six years leading up to Shmita?
2 What are we not allowed to do during the seventh year, the Shmita year?
3 Who is allowed to eat from the land during the Shmita year?
4 Why do you think we were commanded to leave the land to rest?
One of the reasons we leave the land to rest is so that it is able to get back the nutrients that the
plants take out of it, making it healthier. Another reason we leave the land to rest is so that we also
have to take a rest and we remember that we are not in control of everything.
Can you think of another example in Judaism when we have to rest? It also has a link to the number
seven (answer: Shabbat). The Shmita year is like a Shabbat for the land.
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˛ Activity 2 (15 minutes)
Use images of the supply chain found in the appendix below, Resource for Activity 2 (KS2).
1 Ask students to think back to the fruit at the beginning of the lesson and where in the world they
came from. Do they know how the fruit got from the field to their fridge?
2 Ask students to put the supply chain in order.
3 Ask the students:
How does the fruit get from the farm to our supermarket and then to our table?
Who needs to be involved?
Have students considered this point before?
Are there any obstacles in the way, preventing the fruit from getting from the farm to the table?
What factors might affect the chain? Think about the weather, natural disasters, strikes etc.
Activity 3
(15 minutes)
1 If there is any disruption in the chain, it can make it more expensive to bring the fruit to our shops.
If that happens, then the shops need to charge the customer more for the fruit to cover its costs.
That means that the customer ends up paying more for the fruit than he or she might have done in
the past.
2 Do you think that is a problem?
3 Some people might be unable to afford some (or all) foods if the prices go up. If that is the case,
they might need to rely on other ways of getting food to their table.
Explain to the students that one project that has been set up in the UK and all around the world is the
food bank. It’s different to a normal bank because it doesn’t deal with money but it helps people who
don’t have enough food, or are “food poor”. Food banks operate differently in different countries but
they all help people in poverty to access food when they need it most.
The food bank gives a box of food to a family that will help them feed themselves for a few days.
Watch the video from the following link explaining about the work of one charity helping
people who cannot afford food, Fare Share: www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/
retailandconsumer/9572177/Food-bank-We-need-more-food-to-feed-UKs-hungry.html
What do students think about food banks?
The charity behind many of the UK’s food banks is The Trussell Trust. Over 900,000 people received
three days’ emergency food from their food banks last year. How could the students help to spread the
word about food poverty and help food banks make sure that they have enough food to give to people?
Examples of actions students can take:
Create posters telling your school/synagogue about food banks.
Start a food drive to collect food for people who cannot afford it themselves.
Research nearby food banks (such as the Jewish charity GIFT or a local Trussell Trust food bank) to
donate the food to and ask a representative to come in to tell you more about their work. At GIFT
(London and Manchester), students who are under 18 can also volunteer to help pack food parcels.
Contact details are at the end of the resource.
Contact Mitzvah Day to run a food collection for a local food bank on Mitzvah Day, 16th November
2014, as part of Mitzvah Day’s Shmita Foodbank Project. Contact details are below.
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The Shmita year is a time when we are commanded to think about the people who are not able to
buy food themselves. This is a problem in the UK at the moment which is how we can link the Shmita
year to our lives now.
Conclusion
(5 minutes)
1 Ask students which countries they remember our fruit comes from.
2 Who can eat from the land during the Shmita year?
3 Who can they name as being involved in bringing the food to our tables?
4 What happens if there are any disruptions?
5 Name something that could disrupt the supply chain.
6 Students should agree on one action to support food banks.
Contact details
GIFT:
Warehouse address 61–63 Watford Way, London, NW4 3AX
Telephone 0208 457 4429
Email [email protected]
Website www.jgift.org
GIFT Manchester
Bury New Road (behind Prestwich Hebrew Congregation)
Prestwich, Manchester, M25 9WN
Email [email protected]
Mitzvah Day:
Telephone 020 3747 9960
Email [email protected]
Website www.mitzvahday.org.uk
Trussell Trust:
Telephone 01722 580 180
Email [email protected]
Website www.trusselltrust.org
(Appendix: see next page)
1 www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239044/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_
Geography.pdf
2 www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-art-and-design-programmes-of-study/nationalcurriculum-in-england-art-and-design-programmes-of-study
3 DEUTSCHER, Y., HANAU, A. and SAVAGE, N (2013) The Hazon Shmita Sourcebook: Hazon, page 4.
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Appendix: Resource for Activity 2 (KS2)
˛ Images of supply chain
Over the page are the following images for use with Activity 2:
1 Apples grown in orchard
2 Apples picked and put into crates
3 Apples shipped all over the world
4 Apples delivered to the supermarkets and shops by truck
5 Apples displayed in the supermarkets and shops
© Abigail210986 / iStock.com
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© snowflock / iStock.com
© EvrenKalinbacak / iStock.com
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© Margaretrr / iStock.com
© Kondor83 / iStock.com
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