In Portland, Maine, every volunteer got an apron, a hat, a cutting board, and a job. They chopped, they peeled, they stirred. They handwrote cards for people they’d never met. When the last container was sealed, no one wanted to leave.
That scene has played out in various kitchens dozens of times over the past year. And now, after piloting the model in 15 communities across the United States and Canada, Merkos 302 is launching Kitchen of Kindness globally, making it available to shluchim all over the globe.
Each community follows a similar model. Volunteers gather at a Chabad House, cook meals side by side, and package them for delivery to community members who could use support, comfort, or a reminder that someone is thinking of them. But what the pilot year revealed is that the cooking is only half the story. The sessions drew people who had never been to a Chabad event, kept them coming back, and turned a room full of strangers into a community.
“Even in the largest Jewish communities, there are Jews who go unnoticed,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, Executive Director of Merkos 302. “Kitchen of Kindness gives shluchim a way to reach them, while turning their entire community into givers.”
The program was announced last year at the first Yartzeit of Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky a”h, who devoted over five decades to building lasting infrastructure for shluchim around the world. Now, ahead of his second yahrtzeit, Kitchen of Kindness will expand into a global initiative.
For shluchim, the barrier to launching a new program is often not the idea but the execution. Kitchen of Kindness was designed to remove that barrier. Merkos 302 provides everything a shliach needs to get started: branding, a customizable minisite, step-by-step guides, tested recipes, branded merchandise, and access to a network of shluchim already running sessions. The model is flexible.
“We’ve created literally plug-and-play resources,” said Mrs. Cirel Weiss, who directs the Kitchen of Kindness Network at Merkos 302. “The branding, the guides, the recipes, the merch. A shliach can go from signing up to running their first session in weeks.”
The 15 pilot communities, spanning different sizes and demographics, alongside several established Chabad Giving Kitchens that have been operating successfully for years, helped shape and refine the model into what it is today.
In Reno, Nevada, Kitchen of Kindness produced 500 meals in a single five-hour marathon session. In the Five Towns, New York, 30 volunteers cooked meals together during a snowstorm and headed out to deliver them personally to homebound seniors. In Nebraska, a caregiver reached out looking for matzah ball soup for her 93-year-old client. Kitchen of Kindness Omaha delivered it in no time.
“Each kitchen finds its own rhythm. Some communities run full monthly sessions. Others start smaller, building around Yomim Tovim or seasonal needs,” said Cirel. “Shluchim choose the level that best fits their community, and as they see the response, they grow it from there.”
What surprised many shluchim was not the food that went out, but who came in to make it. Kitchen of Kindness sessions draw people who may not attend a shiur or come for Shabbos dinner, but will show up to cook for someone in need. The ask is concrete, the time commitment is short, and the experience is social.
In pilot communities, volunteers came back month after month, brought friends, and in many cases began showing up for other Chabad programming. Corporate groups, school classes, and families with young children all found a way in.
“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, it’s growing and growing,” said Rabbi Moshe Cunin of Kitchen of Kindness Northern Nevada. “Everyone has a mitzvah they connect with. For some people, it’s minyan, for others it’s tzedakah. This is a way to get them through the door.”
The deliveries reach people that organized Jewish life often misses: homebound seniors, patients recovering from surgery, single parents stretched thin, families in crisis. In many pilot communities, the Kitchen of Kindness packages became the first regular point of contact between these individuals and their local Chabad.
Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky a”h spent his life supporting shluchim in expanding their Shlichus. Kitchen of Kindness continues that work, giving every shliach, in any size community, an ongoing way to bring people together and care for the Jews who need it most.
The program is now open to shluchim worldwide, with plans to expand into hundreds of communities in the coming year. For more information or to take part, visit kitchenofkindness.com.
OBK is the OG. Credit should be given where it’s due!