Holiday Gift Baskets 🧺

HOLIDAY GIFT Bags

High Holiday Gift Baskets
Passover Gift Baskets

high holy day gift baskets 2025 are a wrap!

September 2025: This past week, the JCC brought together people from four local synagogues for a common goal: creating and delivering High Holy Day Gift Bags to fellow Jews who are unable to attend services or in need of a little Jewish joy.

Altogether 13 persons participated in baking and packing bags plus 15 drivers delivered goodie bags to 70 people, from Paso Robles to Lompoc. Each bag included a homemade honey cake, Shabbat candles, Kedem grape juice, a Gopher Glen apple, honey sticks from Avila Barn, a Yartzeit candle, and a hand-written card.

For those who may be elderly, isolated, or unable to join services, these bags are a meaningful reminder that they are not forgotten — they are part of our Jewish community.

View the Video

Thank you — Chag Sameach
The JCC Board

Happy Passover from JCC-Federation of San Luis Obispo

April 2025:

During the past week, 66 Pesach Gift Bags were distributed by a dedicated group of JCC volunteers to community members from Paso Robles to Lompoc. This year, it seemed especially important that the Pesach goodies include a small parsley plant — “karpus” — green and growing, which connects us to the gratitude we feel as we dip and taste the bounty of the earth at our Seder tables.

The Holiday Gift Bags program would not happen without the work of volunteers, eager to reach out with love and friendship to people they might know well, and to those whom they are meeting for the first time. Janelle Eagle, Co-President at JCC, shares her own volunteer experience:

“What an absolute joy and blessing it is to deliver Passover baskets to our neighbors. Each time I’ve had the opportunity to knock on doors and wish my fellow community members a happy holiday, I have left feeling so fulfilled. It’s an honor to represent the JCC as we connect in this way and serve those who may not have a way of celebrating or connecting more broadly with the Jewish community in this sacred season. I feel so grateful to be a part of these efforts.”

Besides the Holiday Gift Bags program, your volunteer efforts and donations support the essential community-building work of the JCC Federation of SLO including Hanukkah Downtown, Camp Shoreshim and the Central Coast Jewish Heritage Festival. All these programs and events raise awareness of Jewish life, history, culture, and diversity of expression in SLO County and beyond.

To donate to the Holiday Gifts Bags Program, click here.

Thank you — Chag Sameach
The JCC Board

Thank you to the 2025 Volunteers:

Rosa Britz
Andi Portney
Penny Borenstein
Rich and Patti Namm
Ilene Brill
Marcia White
Bob and Shiela Spector
Gordon Mullin
Janet Hillson
Joy Cook
Mimi Naish
Dove Okonina
Marsha Epstein
Janelle Eagle
Nancie Hardy
Joan Bloomfield
Gail Gresham

thank you!