Our Support is Needed More Than Ever

Over the past few years, Beth Am has forged a warm partnership with ALAS (Ayudando Latinos A Soñar — Helping Latinos Dream), a social service organization and farmworker advocacy group over the hill in Half Moon Bay. ALAS is a non-profit dedicated to aiding farm workers and day laborers to live healthy lives with dignity. They offer an extensive array of services, among them a food pantry, the Equity Bus (which brings health care directly to the fields), mental health, and legal support. Ballet Folklorico and Mariachi for children are the core of vibrant cultural activities for many families. ALAS is, in short, the very heart of the community.

Now, more than ever, these hard-working people need our support and friendship. Adults and children are fearful and anxious due to the current political situation. In addition to poverty, they now face possible raids and family separation. Many of the workers and their families have come to ALAS to seek mental health counseling due to the intense, continuing stress. Mental health professionals at ALAS see over 125 workers and family members a week. And the numbers keep growing. 

Though we cannot cure the all problems our friends face, as our tradition teaches us, we do not put aside the task of helping them. We will do what we can. This September and October we will again collect Safeway gift cards ($20 now due to the higher cost of food) before and during our harvest festival of Sukkot. For the past two years, our gift cards have enabled families to supplement their diets with much-needed protein food options. In 2023 and 2024, Beth Am members generously donated over 1,700 Safeway gift cards, making a huge difference for the community. 

On Friday, October 10 during our Erev Shabbat service, we hope that congregants will once again be inspired and deeply moved to learn first hand about the lives and challenges facing farm workers. Indeed, Beth Am members have not only rallied to offer an abundance of Safeway gift cards, but we also reached out during Christmas to home-bound senior farm workers. Donations have been made of decorated gift baskets filled with cozy lap blankets, gloves, hand lotion, soaps and dental and shaving supplies, as well as an array of homemade cookies. In the spring we delivered a car full of special treats for children, particularly those with mental health support needs. Beautiful journals, art supplies, small toys, and colorful picture books brought smiles to anxious young faces. 

Beth Am also sponsored a delicious farmers’ lunch for several dozen workers. Beth Am’s FarmMitzvah Task Force delivered the meal to two greenhouses where workers tend orchids, herbs, and other plants; we also provided a variety of home-baked cookies to enjoy with lunch, plus dozens more to share with their children. Most recently Beth Am members responded to a call for much-needed summer supplies for workers’ families. We filled an entire SUV to the brim with home cleaning supplies, toilette paper, soccer balls, dolls, picture books, and feminine hygiene products.

Beth Am members have been open hearted and open handed. ALAS folks are grateful, welcoming and caring. None of us will forget our visit to ALAS a few days after the horrors of October 7.  We were immediately greeted with tearful embraces. Two communities mourned together. None of us will forget being held. Being cared for. Beth Am is not about to forget our friends over the hill. 

If you attend virtually, please join the livestream starting at 6:15 PM. You may follow along in our texts for the Erev (evening) Shabbat service using the digital version (available for purchase) of the Mishkan T'filah: A Reform Siddur.

To enhance your enjoyment of Shabbat, please visit betham.org/shabbatcorner (including "Social Stories" in the Resource Box to prepare children ahead of time for what to expect during the Shabbat service).

Learn more about High Holy Days 2025.

*This service will be live video streamed. By entering the Sanctuary you give Beth Am permission to record you.