The Hamas attacks of October 7 have led to countless fissures in Israeli society, but also to new ways of doing business and helping others. It is through that lens that I am approaching Tu B’Shevat, the midwinter holiday traditionally known as the new year of the trees that has also become a symbol of Jewish connection to and stewardship of the land. I usually mark the holiday by eating fresh fruits, but this year I am expanding my understanding of its agricultural focus—by redefining equality to include equal access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

A commitment to sharing the land and fresh produce for all are core values of Adama LeAdam (Land for Person), the organization I created with agronomist Ayala Noy Meir and chef Yaniv Gur Arye after October 7 to help Israeli farmers whose fields lay largely unharvested when many foreign workers returned to their native countries. As teams of our volunteers began to work in the fields, we discovered much more than best practices for picking citrus fruits and digging up cucumbers. We learned that it is standard in the agricultural industry for most farmers to reject a considerable amount of their crops—leaving them unharvested—if the quantities aren’t sufficient to warrant the investment in time, or if the produce is somehow blemished and not attractive enough for market.

At the same time, as some of Israel’s top restaurant chefs were cooking for soldiers, evacuees and hostage families, they began asking us for produce. So, we gathered the abundantly fresh and delicious but not aesthetically perfect or profitable produce and sent it to them, helping these chefs with the ingredients to prepare thousands of meals.

With that new mission, Adama LeAdam now collects close to one ton of surplus produce a week. That food reaches multiple populations through a variety of community-based initiatives, including Holocaust survivors, participants in mental health day facilities, visitors to soup kitchens, students at pre-army preparatory schools, soldiers and impoverished families. Meanwhile, chefs such as Yuval Ben Neriah of Taizu and Shirel Berger of Opa continue to cook with our food in their Tel Aviv restaurant kitchens to highlight our social justice efforts.

Every partner of Adama LeAdam receives the same fruits and vegetables. While most food-rescuing initiatives in Israel operate under a hierarchy, where impeccable produce is sold at market and the irregular crops go to those needing some form of assistance, Adama LeAdam does not.

Such a hierarchy ignores the lessons of shmita imparted in the Torah, when God commands that fields should lie fallow every seven years. During a shmita year, land is not cultivated, and its produce is offered to anyone who is hungry, regardless of their status: “But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce—you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you, and your cattle and the beasts in your land may eat all its yield.” (Leviticus 25:6-7).

Sometimes, equality extends beyond feeding people in need to educating those who lack knowledge of certain fruits and vegetables. I have met teens in pre-army programs whose lower-income families had immigrated to Israel in the previous generation, and who had never eaten mangoes or plums because those fruits didn’t exist in their parents’ home countries. Through Adama LeAdam’s outreach, these young adults have now tasted these fruits—and developed a liking for them.

Other times, Adama LeAdam strives for increased access to produce by helping farmers promote a crop that isn’t well known or popular—yet. For example, Israelis love Maya mangoes, a varietal cultivated in the 1950s, but there are other mangoes grown domestically that are equally delicious and deserve a wider market share, such as the Keitt mango, which is unusual because it’s eaten when its skin is green.

In another example, Adama LeAdam volunteers have been collecting the leaves left behind after yams are picked—leaves that can be prepared like more popular greens such as spinach or Swiss chard. Some of our partnering chefs have incorporated yam leaves into their menus, and there are a growing number of farms who have begun selling the leaves to customers.

Last year on Tu B’Shevat, as scores of Israelis took to the land to help farmers rescue their crops, the spotlight shone on local produce, especially those crops that are unique to the climate and soil.

When Tu B’Shevat begins this year on February 12, let’s expand its focus to encompass equality. If we disregard the blemishes and all eat the same delectable fruits and vegetables grown in the Land of Israel, then on some level, we are all the same. By accepting differences in produce, we accept differences among ourselves, too. 

Avigail Kuperman is a culinary tour guide in Israel and co-founder of Adama LeAdam.