By Jamie Weissman

There are billions of people in the world, and many of them struggle to put food on the table each day. That is where Challah For Hunger comes in.

Challah For Hunger is a national organization that was started in 2004 by students at Scripps College who realized the challah they were baking for fun could be sold for a profit. Today, 67 colleges across the country are achieving the organization’s goal of bringing people together to bake and sell challah to raise awareness for social justice causes, and the University of Maryland is one of them.

“It’s a really nice community thing. It’s for a really good cause,” junior architecture major Gabriel Maslen said.

Maslen is co-president of Challah for Hunger’s Maryland chapter. He and his counterpart, Yael Nagar, organize a group of students every week, Wednesday through Friday, to hand-make and braid dough. Members bake and sell the challah at Maryland Hillel from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“A lot of people like to do it to hang out. It’s nice to be able to say you made some of the bread being sold,“ Maslen said.

The loafs of challah are sold for $4 each, and benefits are donated to hunger relief organizations such as the American Jewish World Service, an organization dedicated to fight hunger, disease and poverty in the developing world.

“Every semester we raise a couple thousand dollars,” Nagar, a junior economics and government & politics major, said.

Currently, the challah is sold at Hillel, but according to Maslen, the group hopes to expand their borders to north campus and adopt a delivery service the Northwestern University chapter uses.

“They have this program where they have people selling in every dorm on campus. They take their order and deliver it to them, “ Maslen said.

However for now, the group is focusing on spreading awareness in other ways.

“Something we’re trying to expand is awareness of global hunger issues. We want to have little notes on the bread so you can see a fact about the hunger issues, “ Maslen said.

The group also hopes to continue spreading awareness through organized talks on food deserts and urban areas where it is difficult to find affordable or fresh food.

Until then, there is one thing you should know about Challah For Hunger’s baking; “it takes awesome now,” Nagar said.

For more information on Challah For Hunger visit www.challahforhunger.org