Shaloh House Achievements Report 2021-2022

FREE FOOD AND HEALTHY FOOD –

for our students and the broader community

The Shaloh House Open Site provided each day 650 free kosher breakfasts and 650 free kosher lunches for kosher-observant Jewish families of Greater Boston.

In spring 2021, Shaloh House welcomed a won derful nutritionist who has been working on creating a menu that both appeals to students’ picky palates and at the same time addresses healthy nutrition and the school lunch guide lines. In 2021-2022, our school menu was enhanced by bean, lentil, and vegetable soups, green beans with fried eggs, rustic potatoes, freshly baked apple pastries, banana and car rot muffins and many, many more delicious additions.

To support the new menu and have a smooth operational flow, Shaloh House invested about $100,000 into new kitchen equipment and in creating a separate meat kitchen.

In summer 2021 Shaloh House installed an outdoor Vegetable Garden with raised cedar wood beds and an automatic irrigation sys tem to supply fresh vegetables and herbs to our kitchen.

The Shaloh House Open Site provided each day 650 free kosher breakfasts and 650 free kosher lunches for kosher-observant Jewish families of Greater Boston.

Shaloh House’s kitchen:

TINY GREEN THUMBS

Pulling with all their might, three Shaloh House campers (aged 4) rocked back and forth several times and finally yanked a huge garlic plant out of one of the school’s lush raised-garden beds.

“Whew!” one of the little gardeners said. “You know, I like garlic, but I don’t like it when it has that stuff on the bottom.” She pointed disap provingly at the clumps of black dirt clinging to the bottom of the bulb.

This summer, Shaloh House campers harvested tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, peppers, squash, cu cumbers, corn, watermelon, pumpkins, beans, cabbage, lettuce, radishes, potatoes, beets and flowers – all planted earlier this year by Shaloh House students. Under the direction of profes sional gardeners, Shaloh students this past spring worked industriously, seeding, weeding, and watering the school’s nine cedar-wood raised-garden beds. By late July and August, the gardens were lush and profuse.

“Gardening is not just fun and relaxing for the kids,” Shaloh Head of School Rabbi Dan Rodkin said. “It’s been shown to improve chil dren’s focus and memory, and it even encour ages them to eat healthier!”

A 5-year-old camper craned his head backwards to look up at the 6-foot-high corn. “Wow, these are getting bigger and bigger!” he said.

Another precocious young gardener couldn’t take her eyes off the sunflowers, which were swarming with bees. “Look,” she said, “the bees are making honey for Rosh HaShanah!”

Tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, peppers, squash, cucumbers, corn, watermelon, pumpkins, beans, cabbage, lettuce, radishes, potatoes, beets and flowers – all planted by Shaloh House students.

= Garden Installation Cost $45,000 = Education sessions and maintenance$11,000 annually

PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN’S SAFETY AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS

SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS

- The main focus of Shaloh House’s capital improvements has been to implement security and safety mea sures to safeguard our students, staff, congre gants and visitors. In 2021-2022 Shaloh House reinforced perimeter doors, installed a bullet-proof glass aquarium at the vestibule, installed a video intercom, central alarm sys tem, cameras, motion sensors and emergen cy buttons and windows safety locks.

In addition to fencing off our playgrounds, in summer 2022 we built secure perimeter fenc ing for our gardening area. Finally, Shaloh House received a Homeland Non-Profit Secu rity Federal grant for hiring a security guard during the 2022-2023 school year.

OTHER GREAT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS

Our long-awaited roof repair took place in the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, and now our state-of-the-art-gym is leak-free! We also completed a much needed, and lovely addition on both the 1st and 2nd floors: Four fully-renovated, stylish bathrooms. In the summer 2021 we installed a new Pergola so our kids can eat lunch outside in the sunny weather of the fall and spring. And in the sum mer 2022 we installed new modern floors in the 3rd floor classrooms.

Our kids eat lunch outside in the sunny weather at the new Pergola.

In 2021- 2022 Shaloh House invested in the security and capital improvements more than $170,000.

AFTERSCHOOL is Truly Exciting at Shaloh House

In 2021-2022 Shaloh House enriched its Extra curricular program by including a wide range of educational and cultural classes and experienc es, such as ESL, Russian, journalism, puppetry, fencing, chess, and gardening.

Our Journalism course included reading articles, brainstorming story ideas, creating a pitch for an upcoming story, working on articles, peer editing, and formatting. Students created a student news paper - “The Shaloh House Chronicle” - which was sent to students’ families. “I read in the newsletter many interesting details about the lives of other students and the people they wrote about. I feel that I know the school community so much better now,” the parent of one student said.

In Fencing, children work on coordination, agili ty, balance, flexibility, strength, and cardiovascu lar endurance.

Our Chess classes help children develop prob lem-solving skills and develop planning skills, foresight and assists in improving concentra tion and creativity.

At the Puppetry workshop, students created original characters and narrative scenes and were introduced to multiple puppetry styles. “Puppetry is a unique and creative way to help kids to learn language, to express themselves, and to overcome shyness”, Shaloh Head of School Rabbi Dan Rodkin said. The successes of the Puppetry workshop in Shaloh House were filmed in a Brookline Hub In-Depth episode.

Students created a newspaper - “The Shaloh House Chronicle” “Puppetry is a unique and creative way to help kids to learn language, to express themselves, and to overcome shyness”, Shaloh Head of School Rabbi Dan Rodkin said.

SHALOH HOUSE - A Hub for our Jewish Community

We are honored that Shaloh House is well known as “the place to go” for Jewish families. Every fam ily member from our children to our elderly have programs through which they can learn, pray, and celebrate holidays. Hundreds attended our events in 2021-2022!

Tu-b’Shvat program included a Science Fair with juice lab, food art, crafts and featured a live Reptile demonstration. Our Chanukah celebration includ ed a Public Menorah lighting by Shaloh House’s Rabbi Shlomo Noginsky, and Melissa Wu, Mayor of Boston, Robert Kraft, Boston philanthropist, Marc Baker, CJP President and many more prom inent leaders of Jewish communities and officials attended. Attendees enjoyed music, entertain ment, prizes, delicious and warm Chanukah treats and of course our now-famous Annual Chanukah Hummer Limo Parade around Boston

On Purim, Shaloh House welcomed the whole community for a Megillah Reading, Science Show “Fire and Ice”, costume parade, photobooth and dinner and treats.

The Lag Ba-Omer celebration at the park enter tained kids and adults with inflatables, a petting zoo, ponies, face painting, and a magic show.

On Passover, our dear community of more than a hundred Russian speaking elderly people was excited to celebrate their Seders at Shaloh House, conducted in Russian especially for them.

The learning never stops! Rabbi Noginsky teaches daily evening lessons to adults on Talmud, laws of Jewish life, and philosophy of Judaism and Sara Rod kin teaches weekly Torah lessons and challah baking.

Shaloh House is well known as “the

Jewish families! Shaloh House welcomed the whole community at its Purim celebration for Megillah Reading, Science Show “Fire and Ice”, costume parade, photobooth and dinner and treats.

place to go” for

And We Continue to Grow!

ENROLLMENT is sky high. The 2021-2022 school year was the third successful year of the Univer sal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program at Shaloh House – providing free full-day school 4-yearolds from Boston. All our UPK teachers hold Bachelor’s degrees, EEC licenses, and take grad uate and professional development courses throughout the year. This year (2022-2023), in addition to 4-years-olds, we were approved for and added a free UPK program for 3-years-olds from Boston!

NEW STAFF. In spring 2021 Shaloh House wel comed a nutritionist Izabella Tolmasova, par ent of two Shaloh House students. Izabella super vises our menu and also teaches nutrition classes. As Bella says: “In class, we focus on learning about the benefits of different foods in a fun way.”

In winter 2021, Shaloh House welcomed a Director of Fundraising, Julia Goldberg. In 2021-2022 Julia applied for 42 grants, and 35 were awarded! The funds allowed us to enrich our extracurricu lar program, build the garden, purchase kitchen equipment, and hire a nutritionist, a nurse and a security guard.

The nurse Dasha Baklanov, parent of three Shaloh House students, joined Shaloh House in spring 2021. Dasha has been extremely instru mental in handling COVID issues and proce dures and in keeping school in accordance with the Department of Public Health requirements.

In fall 2022 Shaloh House welcomed a Preschool teacher, Nira Noginski, mother of four Shaloh House students, who brings her exten sive parenting and teaching experience, warmth and joy to the students.

For the 20222023 school year, Shaloh House was approved for a free UPK program for 3-years-old from Boston.

4 Exciting additions to our staff!

roof? =Toddler-Grade 6 Internationally Award Winning School =FREE UPK Universal Pre-Kindergarten for BOTH 4- and 3-year-olds! =Rabbinical School =Open Food Site for families in need. Over 650 free KOSHER breakfasts and lunches daily.

=Our kitchen provides hot kosher lunches daily for 4 other day schools =Jewish Women’s Trips: NYC this summer; Israel this fall =Weekly Challah baking class for women =Torah classes nightly for the community =Rollicking fun Jewish summer camp on site for 5 weeks/ heated pool =Great extracurricular activities for school –Gardening, Chess, Fencing, Journalism, ESL =Shaloh students have won top medals in math, English, fencing, chess =100 percent acceptance for our graduates into Boston Latin =All Jewish life cycle events, from cradle to grave =State of art security system =Holiday Spectacular Events =Fun menagerie in school – Tropical birds, wall-sized fish tanks and more!

Giving Tuesday Opportunity:

November 29, 2022

We could not have done it without you! Thanks to your amazing efforts, $78K were raised on Giving Tuesday 2021. Without your support Shaloh House could not continue to provide its exceptional academic program, adult classes, fun camps, celebrations, and religious services to our strong Great Boston community. You give us life! Your contribution will make an impact. You can donate at https://www.shaloh.org/ donate. With a great honor and pleasure of being a part of our great community, Rabbi Dan Rodkin