A true ‘community Seder’: Strangers donate food to Bluffton family for holiday meal

Time was running out when Arlene Spiegel realized her backup grocery plan for Wednesday night’s Seder wasn’t going to work.

Spiegel, 71, and her husband, Larry, have been isolating in their Bluffton home during the coronavirus to steer clear of the virus. When she went to order groceries on Sunday for the traditional Jewish meal, held Wednesday and Thursday evenings —the first and second nights of Passover — the turnaround time was much longer than expected.

If she didn’t go to the grocery store herself, she realized she wouldn’t get the ingredients for the meal until Thursday, effectively missing the first of the two-night celebration.

Spiegel said she has hosted Seder every year with her family.

“I know exactly what I’m doing, and I am always on time,” she said. This year, though, the “date and Passover kind of got away from me.”

Instead of going shopping, Spiegel wrote to the Bluffton Ask and Answer Facebook page on April 5.

“Help! To all my Jewish friends (and friends who aren’t), I am in trouble,” she wrote. “I am missing all sorts of important items for my Seder plate, and we are self-isolating. If anyone has horseradish, apples, walnuts, parsley, and anything that passes as a shankbone (a drumstick?) I will gladly purchase them from you!”

Bluffton delivered. Literally.

“I was brought to tears and overwhelmed,” she said as the messages started to flow in. “I got 32 messages, and most started with ‘I’m not Jewish but I can get you things...’”

Soon, neighbors, friends and strangers were at her door.

They brought all the staples: horseradish, eggs, apples, walnuts, parsley, and even a chicken drumstick to use as a shank bone.

One person even left a bouquet of tulips.

Spiegel got so many donations for her meal that the Seder plate will be full for both Wednesday and Thursday nights.

“It just speaks for our community all the time,” she said. “I saw it after (Hurricane) Matthew. I’ve seen it other times. But I think at this particular time when all of us are traveling through some real darkness, this brought some light to me. ... It was an amazing, amazing moment.”

She went back to Facebook to share her gratitude.

“I am sitting here honestly crying. I posted about missing items for my Seder plate, and everyone just came forward with everything I needed,” she wrote. “I am so blessed to be part of this amazing community. Happy Passover, Happy Easter, and stay well and healthy, dear friends.”

The couple, who moved from Brattleboro, Vermont, five years ago, said the Seder meal is traditionally a joyous occasion where their family gathers to share food, read the Haggadah and spend time together.

Spiegel said this year was going to be extra special, as her first great-grandson was going to be old enough to hunt for the Afikomen, the piece of matzoh that the family hides during the Seder meal, and participate in the meal for the first time.

“That’s not going to happen now,” she said.

The family called off the big gathering and will cook dinner separately while they Facetime each other.

But Spiegel said the outpouring of generosity has created a different kind of family in unprecedented time.

“It is a community Seder,” she said of Wednesday night’s crowdsourced meal. “This entire Bluffton community will be around that table tonight.”

How are celebrating spring holidays during the coronavirus? Send your family’s story to kkokal@islandpacket.com

This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 4:13 PM.

Katherine Kokal

The Island Packet

843-560-9158

Katherine Kokal graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and joined The Island Packet newsroom in 2018. Before moving to the Lowcountry, she worked as an interviewer and translator at a nonprofit in Barcelona and at two NPR member stations. At The Island Packet, Katherine covers Hilton Head Island’s government, environment, development, beaches and the all-important Loggerhead Sea Turtle. She has earned South Carolina Press Association Awards for in-depth reporting, government beat reporting, business beat reporting, growth and development reporting, food writing and for her use of social media.