New community partnership provides Shabbat meals to those in need
A recently launched partnership between Jewish Care Victoria and Our Village Kitchen is enabling families experiencing tough times to enjoy cooked Shabbat meals while providing adults living with a disability with meaningful opportunities to give back to their community.
In the kitchen
Many families in the Victorian Jewish community who are experiencing hardship often miss out on sharing weekly Shabbat meals with their loved ones due to an inability to afford the cost of food and groceries that make up the Shabbat meals.
Our Village Kitchen is a not-for-profit organisation that supports families in the Victorian Jewish community experiencing a crisis by providing nutritious, delicious and kosher Shabbat meals lovingly prepared by teams of volunteers to those in need.
Meals consisting of challah, entrée, main and dessert are prepared and packaged at the commercial, state-of-the-art, kosher kitchen at the ARK Centre in East Hawthorn and at a weekly cooking program with students at Bialik College. The meals are then delivered to Jewish Care where they are distributed to clients of Jewish Care Disability and Individual and Family Services.
Volunteers from Jewish Care’s Disability Services assist with organising, storing and distributing the meal parcels to referred clients. The volunteers, all adults who live with a disability, look forward to giving back to and supporting their community.
“Our motto is ‘it takes a village’ and by partnering with Jewish Care our village will continue to grow to enable us to reach the greater Jewish community,” said Romy Bursztyn, President of Our Village Kitchen, “Together we can facilitate the direct distribution of nourishing meals to support and connect with people in our community.”
“The partnership between Jewish Care and Our Village Kitchen is a fantastic example of our community coming together to care for and support those in need in our community,” added Bill Appleby, CEO of Jewish Care. “We are proud to partner with Our Village Kitchen to enable individuals and families in our community experiencing periods of hardship to enjoy sharing delicious Shabbat meals that have been lovingly prepared and distributed by volunteers.”
A Fantastic Program! Well done