Our story
Who is OVK?
Our Village Kitchen connects our community and culture through our shared love of food and cooking. We began from humble beginnings in March 2017. Grateful to be surrounded and supported by our families and friends, we were saddened to learn how many families in our community were going through a crisis and didn’t have these networks to assist them; families that were missing out on simple traditions like celebrating weekly Shabbat meals with their loved ones.
We wanted to help make a difference so Our Village Kitchen was created.
Our journey began by engaging our network of volunteers making nutritious and nourishing Shabbat and weekly meals for families and individuals going through tough times and facing food insecurity as well as people living with a disability.
As new challenges have arisen within our community due to Covid19, we have adapted to provide meals, pantry items and fresh produce to support the growing demand. We also provide food boxes to celebrate Jewish Festivals.
Where are our meals made?
Meals are prepared in a state of the art commercial kosher kitchen, at the Ark Centre in East Hawthorn, which we are fortunate to be able to utilise. Here, in this wonderful environment, we are able to prepare nourishing and comforting home style meals. Meals are prepared using quality kosher ingredients and made with love by our many volunteers.
​
Who receives our meals?
Our meals are distributed to individuals and families within the Victorian Jewish Community through Jewish Care and other charitable organisations. Our recipients present with a broad range of circumstances that have contributed to or impacted upon their access to food.
The team at Our Village Kitchen
Lani, Roch, Lisa L, Romy & Lisa B
The OVK team
Since we
began in 2017
234
cooking sessions have been held
4,137
volunteers have joined us to cook & transport meals
22,732
individuals have been supported with OVK food relief
15,080
nourishing meals have been made
2,795
pantry & fresh produce boxes have been distributed
in partnership with
Registered charity
with ACNC
Cook with us
Join us... to maximise our reach and impact making meals for those in need in our community and make a difference to those going through tough times.
We are reaching out for volunteers to sign up for one or more cooking shifts. Cooking sessions run for up to 2 hours and can be scheduled for morning, afternoon or evening sessions.
Sessions are based at The Ark Centre, in East Hawthorn. Everyone is welcome and no cooking experience is necessary, although we do recommend volunteers are over the age of 15.
To register for a session, please click below. If your selected session appears full and you cannot book in, please contact us at hello@ourvillagekitchen.com.au as we can always accomodate extra helping hands.
​
​
​
Please note that OVK and The Ark Centre follow current Covid safe protocols.
Support us
If cooking is not your thing but you would like to support Our Village Kitchen, we would welcome a donation, which will go towards the cost of purchasing ingredients for our cooking sessions.
Sponsor a session...
Sponsoring a session in honour of special occasions such as bar/batmitzvahs, birthdays, etc. is a meaningful way to commemorate a milestone.
It costs just $20 to feed one family a 3 course meal and $360 to fund the entire cooking session and feed 18 families a beautiful meal.
Sponsor 1 family $20
Sponsor 2 families $40 etc.
Sponsor 18 families $360 (a cooking session)
Make a donation...
To make a tax deductible donation to Our Village Kitchen, please click on the following link.
​
We purchase our meat for our cooking sessions from Continental Kosher Butchers in Glenferrie Road, Malvern. If you shop there, please consider a small donation to our OVK account, which will go towards the cost of purchasing meat.
​
Sponsor a private session...
If you would like to host a private cooking session to commemorate a special event, please contact us to discuss further at hello@ourvillagekitchen.com.au
​
Pantry boxes
As part of OVK giving, we provide families in our community with pantry boxes full of essential household staples and festive ingredients to celebrate the Jewish festivals. If you would like to help a family and donate a pantry box, please contact us.
We appreciate your support
and look forward to cooking with you
OVK
