MAZON Organizer to Speak at Congregation Albert

Samuel M. Chu, national synagogue organizer for MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, will be speaking at Congregation Albert, 3800 Louisiana Blvd. NE (map), on Friday, June 16. Congregation Albert is a participating congregation in the Interfaith Hunger Coalition in Albuquerque.

Chu will offer reflections on hunger in New Mexico and U.S. as part of the Kabbalat Shabbat services, which begin at 6:00 p.m. The service is open to the local faith community and anyone interested in learning about the Jewish perspective on hunger.

After the service, there will be an opportunity to chat with Chu. Light snacks will be provided.  For more information contact education@congregationalbert.org or 505 883-1818

Photo: Mazon

Effective Campaigns
In his role as national synagogue organizer, Chu has guided synagogue partners in developing local and regional advocacy campaigns around issues of food insecurity. He has worked with 900 synagogue partners and allies to push for important changes to address hunger in our country, including $8 million in new state funding to provide free school lunch to 62,000 additional low-income students in Minnesota, universal breakfasts for over 1,000 public school campuses in Texas and improved access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  for thousands of families, seniors, veterans and homeless minors in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts and California.

In October 2016, MAZON launched "This is Hunger," a community engagement program to  illuminate the very real and preventable existence of hunger in America, encourage us to raise our voices on behalf of the 42.2 million Americans who struggle with hunger every day, and ignite our community’s commitment to end hunger once and for all. 

In addition to his work at MAZON, Chu serves as the chair and president of OneLA-Industrial Areas Foundation, and as board chair of 1010 Development Corporation. He advises a variety of nationally recognized groups, including IKAR and Consumer Watchdog.

Chu is a fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at University of Southern California and teaches at the Episcopal School at Claremont School of Theology. He is a frequent speaker and presenter at conferences and training institutes hosted at the Hebrew Union College, American Jewish University, the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, and the United States Student Association, among others.

Prior to joining MAZON in 2011, Chu was the executive director of California Faith for Equality and California Faith For Equality Action Fund. He holds a M.Div. in Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary and a B.A. in political science from UC San Diego.