Students from the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle (JDS) dedicated May 21 to helping area community service organizations and parks.

The school’s annual Mitzvah Day sent students out into the community to collect and sort food for area food banks, serving lunch to clients at local shelters, non-native species removal and trail restoration at local parks and leading a Shabbat service a Seattle retirement home.

The school is located in Bellevue.

“This is a day our students and their parents look forward to all year,” said Rabbi Light, JDS’ Assistant Head of School. “Performing mitzvot or good deeds is an important piece of our curriculum at JDS and is an opportunity for students to really see the results of their work as they have face to face interaction with the people they’re helping.”

Students who remained on campus during the day baked cookies for a teen homeless shelter, wrote letters to patients at Children’s Hospital, bagged groceries for food bank clients and worked on Haiti earthquake relief projects.

This is the 3rd Annual Mitzvah Day at JDS. The campus is also home to the Jewish Family Service’s Eastside Foodbank. Each month, fifth grade students pack groceries and seventh graders cook food for the food bank clients.

JDS is a Preschool-Eighth Grade community day school which serves more than 260 children from nearly 30 zip codes in the area.