The greenhouse heat was merciless last summer, but Sarah and her mother kept working. Row after row of produce needed picking, and somewhere across Israel, families needed feeding. For Sarah, an American who made aliyah in 2020, bending over crops in the sweltering sun wasn't just volunteer work, it was a connection to the land she now calls home.
"I think there's something so special about having the opportunity to work the land in Israel," Sarah reflects, her hands still dirt-stained from the morning's harvest. "It's really a blessing to get to actually come and get to know the agricultural sector and really work the land ourselves."
Leket Israel volunteers help save Israel's farmers after October 7
(Video: Yaron Sharon; drone footage: Itay Pollack, Yaron Sharon)
She's one of over 100,000 volunteers who have flocked to Israel's farms since October 7, 2023, through Leket Israel, answering a crisis that threatened to destroy the country's agricultural backbone overnight.
The morning of October 8 brought a devastating reality to Israel's farmers. Twenty-five Palestinian workers who had tended Yuval Shargian's fields for years simply couldn't come back into the country. Days later, the Thai government evacuated its citizens on emergency flights. Almost overnight, farms that fed the nation stood empty.
"I told my wife that we would have to close the business," recalls Shargian, a farmer from Tzofit, his voice still carrying the weight of that dark November. "I felt that I couldn't manage it alone anymore."
Then a group of volunteers from Tel Aviv arrived, older people, city dwellers unused to agricultural labor. As they worked, one approached Shargian with words that would change everything: "Closing your business is not an option; if you close, they win. "
That small sentence kept him going.
From waste to wonder
Leket Israel, the organization mobilizing this volunteer army, was already fighting food insecurity before the war began. Founded in 2003 by American-born oleh, Joseph Gitler, on a simple premise, that in the land of milk and honey, no one should go hungry, Leket rescues surplus produce from fields and packing houses and cooked food from hotels, corporate cafeterias and IDF army bases, redistributing it to those in need through nonprofit partners.
"In the past, farmers were forced to discard fruit and vegetables they could not sell at the market," Gitler explains. "There's so much food here, but at the same time, there are many struggling families. We needed to put the two together."
After October 7, that mission became existential. Without workers, crops rotted in fields. Without harvests, both farmers' livelihoods and food security hung in the balance.
Volunteers come from everywhere. Stephan traveled from Germany with his wife, who has deep roots in the land. Religious and secular Israelis work side by side.
"In the end of the day, you are tired but happy and you think, okay, we did a good thing today," Stephan says simply.
For the farmers, the impact transcends harvested tons of produce. Shargian speaks candidly: "If Leket had not have brought the volunteers, I'm almost positive that I would go bankrupt. I would have had to close the business. They saved me, literally."
But he emphasizes it's not just physical labor, "their presence revitalizes us and gives us the boost we need to keep going." Seeing people, Jews and non-Jews alike, from Israel and abroad, choosing to spend their days in his fields gives him strength to continue.
The gratitude flows both ways. Volunteers hear farmers' stories, learn what they've endured, understand the stakes. "That's been really heartwarming," notes Dina Michael Chaitowitz, a volunteer from the U.S., "speaking with the farmers and understanding the impact we’re making and seeing their gratitude."
An unlikely victory
The chaos that Hamas intended to create instead forged stronger bonds. In the fields, secular and religious work together. Israelis and Diaspora Jews unite. Young olim and visiting families find common purpose in the soil. "Hamas tried to break us," one volunteer observes, "and instead, they united us."
Shargian, who nearly closed his business, now sees things differently. "In the first two years after October 7, we were in emergency mode. We worked only to survive. And now, thanks to Leket Israel and the volunteers, we’re able to breathe again."
The calls, emails and WhatsApp messages continue flooding Leket's offices. Sometimes they receive so many volunteer requests that they have to find new farmers to support. This spirit of volunteerism shows no signs of fading.
For many volunteers, what began as a crisis response has become something deeper, a tangible connection to Israel's story, written in harvested rows and packed boxes of produce that will feed families in need.
"I think a lot of people from outside of Israel are looking for ways to connect," Chaitowitz reflects, "and I think it's really special that Leket is offering this as an opportunity."
In a nation facing unprecedented challenges, these volunteers have discovered that meaning often grows in unexpected places, sometimes in steaming hot greenhouses, sometimes in fields under the unforgiving sun, always in the knowledge that their work matters.
The land is still being worked. The farms are still producing. And families across Israel are still being fed, because thousands of people chose to show up when it mattered most.
- To support Leket Israel's vital work rescuing food and mobilizing volunteers to support Israel's farmers and feed those in need, click here.
In collaboration with Leket Israel.