Loaves of cinnamon and chocolate-scented braided bread lined a table in Reid Campus Center last Friday, Feb. 4 . Had Bon Appétit changed their menu? Not quite. Whitman College’s Challah for Hunger program, started by first-year Talia Rudee, began selling the bread at the end of January and has been wildly popular across campus.

Challah for Hunger, a nonprofit organization, started in October 2004 at Scripps College  and has since expanded across the nation, donating over 200,000 dollars to non-governmental organizations. Fifty percent of the proceeds from Whitman’s chapter go to the American Jewish World Service’s Sudan Relief and Advocacy Fund (AJWS), which provides assistance to those who have been affected by ethnic cleansing and genocide in Darfur, Sudan; the other half goes to Helpline to provide food relief in Walla Walla.

By bringing Challah for Hunger to Whitman, Rudee hopes to bring international hunger awareness to campus and Walla Walla. She was inspired by the Challah for Hunger chapter at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. and hopes to make Whitman’s program as large as other Challah for Hunger Chapters at Yale University and the Claremont Colleges.

Although Rudee began the program this past year, Whitman’s Challah for Hunger has grown quickly, selling  four different types: chocolate,  cinnamon, Mexican chocolate and original. At four to five dollars a loaf, the program has made tremendous amounts of money for their causes. In their first week of sales, Whitman’s Challah for Hunger sold out in five minutes, selling 20 loaves of challah and generating 95 dollars. Challah for Hunger’s second of week of sales was even more successful, selling 50 loaves of bread and making 250 dollars in under an hour.

“There were people waiting for us to start selling,” Rudee said in regards to the first week of sales.

Although the War in Darfur began nearly nine years ago, it has been an ongoing issue with 450,000 people killed as a result of hunger and disease. Challah for Hunger aims to remind people of this tragic issue and fight against current hunger and disease in the area.

“I think especially in the United States, we live in this happy bubble and we don’t understand that other people don’t have what we have,” said Challah for Hunger member first-year Marie O’Grady. “It’s important to spread the publicity.”

Whitman’s Hillel-Shalom Advisor Sharon Kaufman-Osborn similarly supports the cause behind Challah for Hunger and notes the  generosity  of the Whitman community banding together behind the program.

“Taking action of this sort is a reflection of Tikkun Olam, a basic Jewish value meaning ‘to repair the world’ through social action and the pursuit of social justice,” she said.

Whitman’s Challah for Hunger hopes that with the popularity it has recently received, it can expand and focus on doing more advocacy for Helpline and AJWS. Currently, the group hands out pamphlets to inform buyers of where proceeds go, but Rudee and group member first-year Natalie Pond hope to expand this advocacy beyond just selling challah.

“It’s easy to buy challah and not remember why,” Pond said.

“We’re thinking of having people write letters to Congress or collecting clothing or canned food, turning it in and getting a dollar off challah,” Rudee said.

While challah is a hallmark food in the Jewish religion and culture, traditionally eaten on Friday nights, students of all religious orientations across campus have reacted warmly to the program and have flooded in to volunteer and buy challah.

“It’s less about the religion and more about the global human family and supporting the whole world,” said first-year Rachel Rice, who was buying a challah. “It’s humanity and it’s more important to me.”

Volunteers who have helped Rudee sell and bake challah echo the same message.

“I think we have a responsibility to those less fortunate than us, and if we have the means to help the less fortunate then we should,” said first-year member Anne Gaskins.

Kaufman-Osborn hopes to see the program grow and remains positive about its capability to reach out to others and make a difference.

“Each time someone sees a sign advertising the group, [or] helps during one of the preparing/selling shifts, [or] tells a friend where they bought the delicious challah they are eating, there is the potential for people to see beyond their own little worlds,” she said.

Challahs are sold every Friday at 12:30 p.m. in Reid Campus Center. Whitman’s Challah for Hunger meets on Wednesday and Thursday nights to prepare and bake challah to be sold on Friday. More volunteers are needed; for more information, contact Talia Rudee at [email protected].