Unlikely Duo Teams up for Kosher, Halal
Ari Daniel Shapiro - NPR's Marketplace, March 30, 2010
Two meat distributors -- one Jewish, the other Muslim -- have struck up a unique friendship to provide products to their customers that seek to redefine kosher and halal.

Sustainable Agriculture
Devora Kimelman-Block - Sh'ma Magazine, March 2010
A year ago, I found myself in inner-city Baltimore shoveling manure into a garbage bag in a gas station parking lot... I never thought this would be part of my Jewish journey.

Beefing Up Eco-Kosher
Julie Weiner - The Jewish Week, September 30, 2009
Devora Kimelman-Block, a onetime vegetarian, is quickly becoming the Jeff Bezos of kosher, free-range organic meat — taking Web orders and shipping beef, lamb and chicken all over the East Coast.

The Latest in Brisket: Grass-fed Kosher Beef
Cheryl Kollin - The Jewish Advocate, September 11, 2009
Eco-Conscious Consumers Push New Market. How does grass-fed meat compare in taste to the brisket that Grandma made? Includes recipes!

Food for thought and justice
Suzanne Kurtz - Washington Jewish Week, August, 12, 2009
Barbecues at the Silver Spring Moishe House are nothing unusual. The five 20-something Moishe House residents regularly host friends, neighbors and others throughout the cookout season for get-togethers that are more than just gorge-athons. Each is also a Jewish-themed presentation with an important lesson to teach.

'Eco-kosher' Jews have an appetite for ethical eating
Mary MacVean & Duke Helfand - LA Times, May 8, 2009
With Sabbath candles burning and 14 guests seated around her dinner table, Joanna Arch held up a cup of kosher red wine and chanted the kiddish kiddish prayer in Hebrew.

Down to Earth
Paula Amann - Jewish Woman Magazine, Spring 2009
Whether it's promoting local foods or safeguarding gorillas, recycling lumber or touting trashless weddings, Jewish women activists and entrepreneurs are taking the lead in the green revolution.

How I Became the Meat Lady
Deborah Goldstein - The Local, March 23, 2009
She pointed me in the direction of KOL Foods in Maryland where Devora Kimelman-Block had already traveled this path and had solved her dilemma by successfully marrying the kosher laws with ethical farming.

The Greening of Kashrut
Sue Fishkoff - Hadassah Magazine, February 2009
The first and largest of these independent Jewish meat projects is KOL Foods, launched in 2007 by Devora Kimelman-Block of Silver Spring, Maryland. Although she is not vegetarian, she and her husband stopped bringing meat into their home more than 16 years ago because the only kosher meat they could find came from industrial slaughterhouses with practices (such as use of hormones) they rejected.

The Kosher Wars
Samantha Shapiro - NY Times Magazine, October 9, 2008
The most fully developed of these grass-roots kosher-meat distributors is KOL Foods (for Kosher Organic-Raised Local), based in Silver Spring, Md., which sells grass-fed lamb and beef through synagogues in Maryland, New Jersey, Philadelphia, California and Washington.

Making Kosher Food More Sustainable
Matthai Kuruvil - San Francisco Chronicle, December 27, 2008
"We're playing God when we manipulate things the way industrial agriculture has," said Devora Kimelman-Bloch, 37, who runs Kol Foods, a sustainable lamb and beef business that distributes in the eastern United States. "We've stepped outside where we should be. I'm trying to find a way back."

Turkey Trouble: Turmoil in Kosher Industry Affects Thanksgiving Meal
Lana Gersten - The Forward, November 20, 2008
I think a lot of people buy kosher because at least we were taught in Hebrew school that it’s an ethical way of doing things,” said Devora Kimelman-Block, who founded Kol Foods, a kosher, organic, grass-fed meat company. Kimelman-Block is part of a new movement to produce nonindustrial, organic, kosher meats.

Kosher Consumers Seek New Markets
Johanna Ginsberg - NJ Jewish News, September 18, 2008
“We got interested in KOL foods because a lot of people were asking and talking about Agriprocessors and saying they did not want to get their food from a business using Agriprocessors,” said Beth El’s Rabbi Francine Roston. “I don’t believe our religious practices should conflict with our ethical values.

You are what you Eat: Synagogues press for new ethical standards for kosher foods
Johanna Ginsberg - NJ Jewish News, July 31, 2008
And as a result of people like Goldstein approaching Roston with their concerns, Beth El invited Devora Kimelman-Block to speak on Aug. 2 during Shabbat services (see sidebar). A year and a half ago, Kimelman-Block, a member of a Conservative synagogue in the Washington, DC, area, established a kosher organic meat label known as KOL Foods. She calls it “a sustainable alternative” to the established kosher meat industry.

Click here to hear Devora Kimelman-Block on NPR
Kojo Nnamdi Show - June 16, 2008
A recent immigration raid at the country's largest kosher slaughterhouse has fueled a long-simmering debate: If food meets the strict rules elaborated in religious texts, does it matter how food arrives at our plates? And where do workers' rights and other ethical considerations factor into kosher food production? We'll explore efforts on the local and national level to produce kosher food that meets both religious and ethical standards.

Eco-Kosher Movement Aims To Heed Tradition, Conscience
Alan Cooperman - Washington Post. July 7, 2007
First she had to find an organic cattle farm near Washington. Then a shochet, a person trained in kosher slaughtering, who was willing to do a freelance job. Then a kosher butcher to carve the beef into various cuts and other families from her synagogue to share it.

Beyond basic kashrut. Tifereth Israel project part of growing eco-kosher movement
Eric Fingerhut - Washington Jewish Week. July 11, 2007
Bolton raised the meat for the District's Tifereth Israel Congregation, whose environmental committee chair, Devora Kimelman-Block, worked for the past 10 months to recruit a farmer, shochet and butcher. The first delivery to the synagogue was last week.

Kosher Activists Strive To Slaughter With a Conscience
Nathaniel Popper - The Forward.  November 21, 2007
The founder of Kosher Organic Local Foods, Devora Kimelman-Block, a mother of two, scouted out the local farmer who provides the cows and a kosher slaughterer who has done the slaughtering. After seeing her farmer’s children, Kimelman-Block decided to bring out her own children to the farm to take part in the slaughter.

Conscious Carving
Leah Koenig - American Jewish Life Magazine. Feb/March 2008
Other individuals are taking a different route by bringing the meat directly to consumers, while circumventing the industry all together. Devora Kimelman-Block of Washington, DC started an initiative called Kosher Organic Local Foods (or "KOL" Foods -- a play on Whole Foods).