In 2018, Souper Kitchen opened its doors in the heart of St Kilda to provide free, home-style, kosher meals to people in need in Melbourne including Holocaust survivors, Russian-speaking residents of public housing, victims of family violence, isolated community members, people who recently underwent hospitalisation, people living with disabilities, new migrants and those in challenging financial situations. In the 1st year of Souper Kitchen’s operation, we held 10 cook-offs, making and delivering over 5500 free meals. In 2019, we partnered with Foodbank to assist even more people at the time of need with fortnightly deliveries of up to 1 tonne of groceries, pantry & household items. During the emergency crisis situations including the recent bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic, Souper Kitchen has supported the community with regular deliveries of much-needed meals, pantry and grocery items as well as hygiene and household items. Last year we distributed 60,000 meals and care package programs (around 140 people fortnightly), with more requests for support coming in daily. So too, we assist around 120 Holocaust survivors residing in public housing buildings with the provision of free groceries. However, we need urgent help to continue responding to community needs into the future to enable us sourcing ingredients, assist with logistics, administration, packing and deliveries. We now have our own kitchen and Cafe space, where we have a commercial fund-raising bistro. We can now forego the expenses of kitchen hiring, issues with storage, etc and give our full focus on feeding the vulnerable, assembling hampers. Our social enterprise café provides vocational training to volunteers willing to enter workforce, supports hiring of refugees is a community hub to unite people socially. We are fully registered as a tax-deductible charity.
