I first saw Sara Pines when she came in like a force of nature into an Ecovillage I was visiting. When she saw that the children had the flu, she said, “I am getting out of here! I am on my way to South Africa,” and she vanished as quickly as she had appeared.
She was a diminutive lady with tremendous vitality. Now that the Friendship Donation Network, a humanitarian organization she founded 21 years ago was running smoothly, she felt she could go to far-flung places in the world to discover and share her experience.
Born in Palestine in 1936, a defining moment in Sara’s life came when she was four years old. Her father was working in their garden when he was killed by a bomb that was dropped during WWII. Sara and her mother became homeless, and after two years she was placed in an orphanage. Sara was eight before her mother was able to rescue her from the orphanage.
Sara grew up poor and hungry, but when she got married to a compassionate and generous man—Aaron Pines, a dentist, to whom she has been happily married for 51 years—she was able to get a Ph.D. in human resources from Cornell University and to dedicate her life to people in need.
She said she was not going to live “impoverished in body and soul.” With her husband’s support, she started her mission to alleviate hunger and food insecurity. Her agency, based in Ithaca, New York, focused on alleviating hunger by reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Sara’s volunteers, donors, and friends manage to rescue 645,000 pounds of mostly perishable fresh food—valued at over $1 million per year—and distribute it to 26 hunger programs. These include community kitchens, food pantries, youth programs, and other non-profits whose 245 volunteers help 2,200 people in need weekly.
Sara has only one regret.
“Instead of being a highly accomplished professional and making a difference in the lives of the people in the public, my biggest regret is that I wish I had had more time with my own children.… I wish I had had more time to enjoy them and to be part of their life.”
Gandhi likewise lived his life for others. But unlike Gandhi’s children, Sara’s two children earned their own Ph.D.s. They surely must take pride in the television coverage, newspaper articles, and word-of-mouth accolades their mother has earned these many years. The children made this possible, as much as their father did.
Friends Read Free