Our Big Kitchen is a charity based in Sydney, Australia that provides a large commercial grade kitchen for community use. The kitchen facilities are used by various community groups to prepare and distribute meals. The community kitchen concept is similar to that of a soup kitchen, but incorporates volunteer and common-effort aspects closer to that of a community garden. Housed in the Sydney Yeshiva Centre, Our Big Kitchen, a project of the Sydney Jewish community, is utilized by a large spectrum of both Jewish and non Jewish community groups.
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History
Our Big Kitchen (OBK) was founded by Rabbi Dovid Slavin and Laya Slavin in February 2005.
Services
The Kitchen has a 300 square metre kosher kitchen. The organization organizes events where community volunteers prepare food that is distributed to those in need. OBK organises birthday parties where participants cook food which is later distributed. The kitchen runs programs aimed at helping new mothers overcome post natal depression, corporate team building exercises where employees prepare food together, cook ins for single members of the community. The kitchen is also made available to caterers looking to start a business in the food industry.
Our Big Kitchen came to prominence to a wider public when it organised large scale community cooking for victims of the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009.
Our Big Kitchen has been visited by politicians and dignitaries who have lent their support, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the governor general Quentin Bryce, Malcolm Turnbull, Premier Nathan Rees and Tanya Plibersek.