Baking the World a Better Place, One Cookie at a Time

What a wonderful way to share the message of Yom Tov by bringing joy and a smile to the people who need it most. The idea was to get the wider Sydney community involved to bake over 10,000 honey cookies to be distributed by parents, teens and kids who throughout Tishrei would visit nursing homes, hospitals and homeless shelters to bring joy along with a delicious home-baked gift.

This is exactly what took place in Sydney Australia over the past few weeks – under the direction of Laya Slavin who co-founded Our Big Kitchen with her husband Rabbi Dovid Slavin as a place to share the warmth of Yiddishkeit, in a very tangible way.

Hundreds of volunteers rolled up their sleeves to bake and package the thousands of honey cookies. As part of the experience volunteers also had the opportunity to don Tefillin and listen to the sounding of the shofar.

The single largest group to bake was C-Teen Sydney run by Rabbi Chida and Rochol Levitansky, with 180 Teenagers who rolled, baked and packed a ton of cookies while jamming to the latest Jewish beats. The teens also delivered to doctors, nurses and other hospital staff, who were all very touched by the kind gesture of the young and eager volunteers.

“It’s hard to say what part was most meaningful, the baking, the packing or the distributing – the volunteers from various parts of the country all united and excited about bringing the joy of Yom Tov to others, it has really been such a special feeling”.

To be involved in the next Big drive, visit the website obk.org.au.

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