Members

Eli Winkelman co-founded the first Challah for Hunger chapter while a student at Scripps
College. She is widely recognized as a social entrepreneur for the Jewish community. Eli
directs Challah’s national organization, where she is responsible for strategic planning, board
development, public relations at the organizational level, fundraising and staff and financial
management. Currently, she leads all program management, including support to chapter start- ups and on-going chapters. Eli graduated from high school in Austin early to intern in the D.C. offices of then Senator, now Governor, Mark Dayton. In 2006, she coordinated Texas State
Representative Mark Strama’s campaign academy. She is a recipient of the Joshua Venture
Group and the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowships and has been recognized by President Clinton
for her work. Eli holds a B.A. in politics and Jewish studies from Scripps College.

Challah for Hunger (CfH) has 50 active and continuously growing chapters across the U.S.
and Australia. The chapters bring people together to bake and sell challah. Each chapter
donates half of its profits to the national cause (currently Darfur) and chooses the issues and
organizations to support with the other half of its profits. Through coming together over challah
and philanthropy, volunteers strengthen the Jewish community and build bridges to other
communities, learn and practice business and leadership skills, engage in Jewish traditions of
challah and tzedakah and gain inspiration. Its nimble structure of networked, independent
chapters that are supported primarily by passionate volunteers, allows CfH to grow quickly
in scale and scope while keeping costs low. By imposing minimal guidelines on the chapters
and encouraging them to innovate, CfH engenders creativity and allows chapters to tailor
themselves to their communities. Beyond the guidelines, CfH provides a toolkit of resources
to support all aspects of core chapter operations. On the national level, CfH constantly scans
chapter activities to learn about new successes and challenges, which inspire the development
of resources—often by volunteers—to help all chapters succeed in these areas.

Eli has been a member of ROI since 2007.