Like so many other people in Jerusalem, Danielle Renov knew something was wrong on Oct. 7, 2023.
There were sirens blaring — “siren after siren,” she said — which, while not an uncommon occurrence, definitely was not the norm.
It was only after that day ended and Renov and her family could turn on their phones again that they began to understand the scope of the horror that had occurred in southern Israel.
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“And it was just extremely devastating,” Renov, a food and lifestyle blogger born in New York, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Within days of the terrorist attack on Israelis, thousands of people moved to Renov’s neighborhood in Jerusalem. They went into unoccupied apartments as well as into hotels.
Jerusalem “experienced an adrenaline rush,” said Renov. “There was an immediate need to help these people, to find clothing for them, find toys for them, books for little kids, strollers and bottles and formula and diapers and, you know — really basic human needs that needed to be met.”
Danielle Renov, the well-known author of the food blog “Peas, Love & Carrots,” started a fundraiser to help feed Israeli families displaced by the Oct. 7 terror attacks. At right, one of the thank-you notes she’s received. (Fox News/Peas, Love & Carrots)
Raised on Long Island, Renov moved to Israel 17 years ago with her husband. She writes for her own website “Peas, Love & Carrots” and is the author of “Peas, Love & Carrots: The Cookbook,” published in 2020.
Realizing that these thousands of new neighbors needed help, she began to assist in the best way she knew how: with food.
“One of my friends, Rachel Shapiro, who actually lives in my building, started this with me. She was like, ‘Danielle, I think we need to find a way to give women chicken.’”
She was quickly able to raise the funds needed to purchase chicken for the displaced women.
Renov put up a donation link on her Instagram account, and was quickly able to raise the funds needed to purchase chicken and provide a supermarket voucher to the displaced families.
“We were able to raise the money and we were able to provide chicken to the women [who were] cooking,” she said.
But Renov also realized in short order that the therapeutic nature of cooking would be helpful to many families.
“As much as they appreciated being cooked for, they actually wanted to cook their own food, the food their family likes to eat,” she said.
Today, nearly all the money that’s raised, said Renov, goes to the displaced and relocated families who are eking out a living in Jerusalem, far from their homes.
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“Unfortunately, because a lot of their towns were destroyed, their homes were destroyed or their towns were somewhat destroyed, and they don’t have schools for their children — they can’t go back to work. They have nothing,” she said. “They literally cannot feed themselves at this point.”
She added, “So every week we put up a link, we raise the money, we give each family [a] portion of chicken enough to last for the week — and they get a small supermarket voucher.”
She added, “There are no luxuries here.”
Each week, Renov and her family work to package over 1,500 pounds of chicken for distribution to the Israelis still displaced by the terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. (Peas, Love & Carrots)
Meeting the families she’s helped has been a sobering experience, she told Fox News Digital.
“It’s very sad to meet a lot of these families,” she said.
She mentioned two families with the same last name, and how — early on in the fundraising efforts — Renov and her cohorts had to differentiate the two families by which tragedy they had experienced.
“The way we differentiated between them was we would say, ‘Are you the family whose house was hit by the rocket, or are you the [family] whose father was hit by shrapnel and is in the hospital?’ That’s the reality,” she added, of the work she’s been doing and the status of the families she’s been helping.
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Even now, months after the Oct. 7 attacks, Renov is still feeding up to 200 families each week.
“The list fluctuates, depending on the week — who’s coming, who’s going, things like that,” she said.
In addition to chicken, each family receives a voucher for groceries, Renov told Fox News Digital. (Peas, Love & Carrots)
Each week, Renov fundraises to buy about 1,500 pounds of chicken.
Along with Shapiro and the women’s families, the group works together to package everything and distribute it to the needy families.
Renov’s charitable work has even inspired others.
“Clearly God didn’t want us to stop. He wants us to continue to help these families.”
Recently, she was thinking of ending the fundraiser and posted about it on Instagram.
As the war continued, funds became lower — and “whenever God decides that’s enough, it’s enough,” she said.
“Out of nowhere, I get a call from the butcher,” she told Fox News Digital.
People attend a mass public prayer calling for the hostages held in the Gaza Strip to be released in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem’s Old City, Israel, on Jan. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A woman had come into his store and asked him if he was the one providing the chicken for the “Peas, Love & Carrots distribution.”
After he confirmed that he was, the woman asked how much it cost each week — and then paid in advance for a full week’s worth of chicken distribution.
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“And he told me, ‘I just couldn’t believe it because clearly God didn’t want us to stop. He wants us to continue to help these families,'” she said.
“At least that’s what I took from it.”
While Renov hopes that the Israel Hamas war is soon over, she remains “very grateful” to be able to help people in their time of need — and to see the good in humanity over the last three months.
“I actually feel really fortunate, because I feel like I’m seeing a side of the world that not everybody gets to see all the time — the side of acceptance and caring and kindness and generosity,” she said.
Each week, Renov and others deliver chicken to up to 200 displaced Israeli families. “I feel like I’m seeing a side of the world that not everybody gets to see all the time — the side of acceptance and caring and kindness and generosity,” she said. (Peas, Love & Carrots)
“And it’s really a privilege to be able to witness that.”
Renov said she is also thankful for the small donations — every little bit helps — and for people who have kept this fundraiser in their prayers.
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“Some people donate $2, and those $2 are just as important as someone who sponsors [the food for] the entire week, because those $2 add up,” she said.
“Every penny counts.”
They’re “so thankful and they’re so appreciative.”
While her work has feed thousands of people over the last three months, she does not want credit.
The families who receive chicken “are so thankful and they’re so appreciative,” she said.
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And she and her friend Rachel Shapiro, she said, “just sit there and we’re like, ‘It’s really not us.'”
She added, “We’re just the messengers.”
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