Our Big Kitchen, abbreviated as OBK, 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 Yeshivah Centre, Sydney, Our Big Kitchen, a project of the Sydney Jewish community, is accessed by a large spectrum of both Jewish and non-Jewish community groups. OBK was founded by Rabbi Dovid Slavin and Laya Slavin in February 2005.
Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Port Jackson and extends about 70 km (43.5 mi) on its periphery towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park to the south and Macarthur to the south-west. Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, 40 local government areas and 15 contiguous regions. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders". As of June 2017, Sydney's estimated metropolitan population was 5,230,330 and is home to approximately 65% of the state's population.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
A soup kitchen, meal center, or food kitchen is a place where food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, soup kitchens are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church or community groups. Soup kitchens sometimes obtain food from a food bank for free or at a low price, because they are considered a charity, which makes it easier for them to feed the many people who require their services.
The kitchen has a 300-square-metre (3,200 sq ft) kosher kitchen. The organisation 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. [1]
The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009 and were among Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. The fires occurred during extreme bushfire weather conditions and resulted in Australia's highest ever loss of life from a bushfire; there were 173 direct identified fatalities, The figure was later increased to 180 fatalities, after several people had succumbed to their injuries. Many were left homeless as a result.
Our Big Kitchen has been visited by politicians and dignitaries who have lent their support, including Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, the Governor-General Quentin Bryce, former Premier Nathan Rees and Tanya Plibersek, the Member for Sydney. [2]
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