In Reno, Nevada, 30 volunteers spent five hours in a single marathon session and walked out with 500 freshly cooked meals. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, shmura matzah was tucked into food packages with stickers telling recipients when to eat it. In Portland, Maine, volunteers in matching aprons peeled, chopped, and stirred their way through pots of chicken soup, potato kugel, and tzimmes, then wrote personal cards for every recipient.
Across 20 communities in the United States and Canada, the Kitchen of Kindness network is gearing up for Pesach to ensure no Jew sits alone on Seder night without a meal, a Haggadah, and the basics to make Yom Tov.
“Even in the largest Jewish communities, there are Jews who go unnoticed,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, Executive Director of Merkos 302. “Kitchen of Kindness turns community members into a team of givers, making sure every Jew has what they need to celebrate Pesach with dignity.”
The program, created in memory of Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky a”h, supports volunteer-run kosher kitchens at Chabad centers from the Five Towns to Vista, California. Each kitchen runs on a regular schedule, but for Pesach, many added special sessions to meet the surge in need.
In Santa Fe, the local Kitchen of Kindness, directed by Rabbi Berel and Devorah Leah Levertov, saw 25 volunteers packing meals, including many who don’t usually come to Chabad. shmura matzah was sent alongside the usual meals at its most recent session. People signing up for the community Seder were also offered the option to anonymously sponsor a kit for someone in need.
“Recipients include people in residential homes who try to keep kosher but always have a hard time on Pesach, and a couple in their 90s, both going through chemo,” Levertov said. “Our volunteers are going to deliver it all on erev Yom Tov.”
Rabbi Dovid Kotlarsky of Chabad of East Lakeview, Chicago, who operates a Kitchen of Kindness with his wife Devorah Leah, has connected with people most programs never reach. One woman with a spinal injury hasn’t left her bed in six years. A 93-year-old Moroccan woman whose daughter died during COVID had no one visiting her.
“We met her through this project and now we have volunteers who visit her every week,” Kotlarsky said. “She came for Purim, we had a Moroccan Purim, she celebrated. It was really, really special.”
For Pesach, his kitchen is assembling complete Seder-to-go packages: chicken, potatoes, vegetables, grape juice, matzah, a Haggadah, and a kiddush cup, delivered to people who won’t go out at night and won’t come to anyone’s Seder.
In Oceanside and Vista, California, Mrs. Nechama Greenberg hosted a Cooking Expo where four local chefs demonstrated Pesach recipes. Volunteers cooked alongside them, tasted the results, took home recipe cards, and then packaged the delicious food for delivery to community members in need.
“People were so happy to be able to meet people and be doing something, especially now when the world needs extra light,” Greenberg said. “The people who received the food really felt that hug.”
In Portland, Maine, Rabbi Levi and Hindy Wilansky received their first full shipment of Kitchen of Kindness branded supplies just in time for Pesach. Volunteers assembled complete seder plates with charoset and maror, cooked chicken soup with matzah balls, baked potato kugel, and prepared tzimmes.
“The feeling in the room was just unreal,” said Hindy. “People were so excited to be part of a project of coming together to help people who aren’t able to cook for themselves or make a Pesach.”
What sets Kitchen of Kindness apart, she added, is the direction it flows. “This is not top-down, where the shliach makes a project and the community members are just recipients. Here, these volunteers are part of the project. You’re inviting them into your shlichus to be part of something meaningful, and they feel so uplifted to be given the opportunity to help.”
Rabbi Moshe and Doba Cunin of Chabad of Reno, NV, whose kitchen produced 500 meals in a single pre-Pesach session, sees this initiative as a gateway. “It’s a great way to get people through the door,” said Moshe. “It’s created a sense of community and brought people into Chabad that either attend different synagogues or no synagogue at all. And people keep coming back.”
This Pesach, for Jews across the country who don’t have the means or the company to make a Seder, Kitchen of Kindness volunteers are delivering complete meals, Seder kits, and handwritten cards to their doors.
