Food Drives

Temple Kol Ami is proud to be one of the largest donors to the Paradise Valley Emergency Food Bank. All year long we collect funds to purchase groceries, and twice a year–once in Fall, once in Spring–a large group of TKA adults, teens and kids gather at Fry’s to shop for food and then caravan to the Food Bank where together we stock the shelves. This year we donated over 10,000 pounds of food!

To get involved, contact Youth Engagement Director Sara Arcus, who organizes the drives, at sara@templekolami.org.

Andre House

Andre House serves dinner every night of the week except Friday to somewhere between 550-650 people that would otherwise not have dinner. In addition, Andre House provides many resources during the day. The people they serve are considered “guests.” The majority are living and sleeping on the streets in Phoenix or spending the night in a shelter if there is space available. All are treated with respect. The guests know there are rules at Andre House and respect the rules as they want to be able to access their services.

Blood Drives

Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood. Our seasonal blood drives broke record after record during the 2016-17 year, with Temple Kol Ami members and friends from our community donating over 100 pints of life-giving blood to Vitalant. Donating blood is a safe, simple and painless process–an easy way to ‘do Jewish’ in our world. Just one donation can save up to 3 lives.

Ready to donate? Check your Kol Ami eBlast for information on upcoming blood drives.

Turkey Train

One of Kol Ami’s most anticipated annual events, The Turkey Train, provides thousands of pounds of frozen whole turkeys for individuals and families in need during the Thanksgiving holiday. For a solid month prior, our members and religious school children bring in frozen turkeys, and on the day of the Turkey Train, the entire Religious School lets out early to form a brigade of kids and adults passing frozen turkey after frozen turkey from our freezers to cars that will whisk the turkeys to the food bank.