Project Ezrah creates, packs and distributes over 7000 modest mishloach manot packets each year. This daunting and overwhelming endeavor, which much be completed by mid-day Tanis Esther so that packets are ready for delivery during the early hours of Purim morning, is possible only through The Purim Partnership: Project Ezrah @ Ben Porat Yosef (BPY).

For the past eight years, BPY has become Project Ezrah’s permanent “Purim Home,” and the students have enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to assist in the organization’s mission to raise funds for those in need in the local community. Students anticipate the packing and look forward to it, starting to ask about it as soon as they realize that Rosh Chodesh Adar is on its way. It has been an outstanding collaboration for both entities. Project Ezrah benefits by securing an enthusiastic and diligent student workforce, and Ben Porat Yosef benefits by offering its students a truly valuable learning experience—the opportunity to realize the impact they can have in doing chesed. Students constantly express how much they enjoy assisting Project Ezrah in its mission to help neighbors in need.

Students from nursery grade, at 3 years old, up through the BPY eighth graders participate in the packing with great excitement and extraordinary efficiency. Each grade works in teams, with each student assigned specific tasks—like a well-oiled assembly line crew! This year seventh and eighth grade BPY students also had a great time partnering with Sinai School students who came to help with the packing project.

All grades can take part in this important mitzvah; nobody wants to be left out! Before Purim, each grade is assigned its shift to pack, with the nursery and pre-K students being the first to delve into the mountain of supplies. This year, after only 45 minutes, these young students assembled close to 900 packets for Project Ezrah! Then the kindergarten through eighth grade students took their turns with great enthusiasm. Cumulatively, with the 7,000 packets packed each year, over the life of the Project Ezrah-BPY partnership over 50,000 mishloach manot packets have been packed by Ben Porat Yosef students—making this enduring partnership between the two entities a productive, worthwhile and truly special experience.