Shlucha Voted Local Hero, Wins $10K Prize

By COLlive reporter

Chabad Shlucha Laya Slavin of Sydney’s Our Big Kitchen in Australia has won the title of Westfield Local Hero in an online voting competition.

Slavin garnered the most votes in the competition and is being recognized as a local hero. She will receive $10,000 for the organization.

Our Big Kitchen, founded by Laya Slavin along with her husband Rabbi Dovid Slavin, is a community-run industrial kitchen where meals are prepared for distribution to hospitals, ambulances, women’s, youth and children’s shelters, hostels, religious organizations, and anyone else who’s hungry.

“This $10,000 is much appreciated at a time when our kitchen is being called on more and more to support those in need who have been affected by COVID19,” said Laya Slavin.

“All who know Laya will have no doubt that she is a very worthy recipient of this award, as well as many awards she has won in the past,” said her husband Rabbi Dovid Slavin.

“We thank Westfields and all who voted for Laya,” he said. “A special thank you to the Slavin children who are all involved in the Kiddush Hashem that the Kitchen is well known for.”

“Laya has become the well-known, welcoming face of OBK, whether welcoming volunteers into OBK or running challah bakes and leading teams of volunteers across Sydney’s major hospitals with special Yom tov packages to support and cheer up patients families and hospital staff,” Rabbi Slavin said.