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Helping Big
By Joel Nelson on Mar 27, 2025 in Giving
Combatting food insecurity on a large scale requires dedication and innovation. A leading nonprofit in Australia, with Yardi’s help, is rising to the challenge.
Our Big Kitchen is a large-scale facility in Sydney that cooks and distributes meals (about 250,000 every year) to disadvantaged Australians.
OBK was founded in 2005 by Rabbi Dovid Slavin and his wife Laya as a modest communal cooking experience. The couple soon acted on a larger vision, turning the basement of a Yeshiva center into an industrial kitchen with help from labor donated by builders, excavators, painters, electricians and others.
Yardi Australia has been a corporate contributor to OBK for several years. In March, more than 40 employees from the Sydney office spent a day at the kitchen, helping prepare several hundred meals that were immediately shipped to needy community members directly or through a network of more than 40 charities.
Making 700 meals a day
Turning out up to 700 meals every day takes a lot of work and more than a little creativity. OBK is powered by its legion of volunteers and contributors. The organization also works with other food relief organizations to obtain surplus food from markets and restaurants that would otherwise be wasted. OBK emphasizes outreach to school programs, believing that supporting its mission teaches children “kindness by cooking meals for people in need, and allowing them to interact with their peers in a meaningful way,” according to the organization’s website.
OBK’s catering arm hosts onsite events, providing “a memorable, hassle-free way of celebrating a special day.” It honors birthdays, graduations, weddings, baby showers, corporate team-building events and other gatherings.
“We look at what happens in the kitchen in two ways. There’s the output, the tens of thousands of meals being cooked and distributed at no cost to the recipients. And there’s also what we call the throughput – fun and positivity, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds. We’re helping people with special needs or who are struggling to find work make a contribution. And we’re providing a communal dining table,” Dovid Slavin said.
