OBKLA Volunteers Prep Meals, MOT Lights up Building for Hostages

Responding to the wildfires, Our Big Kitchen Los Angeles (OBKLA), a nondenominational nonprofit committed to fighting hunger, held a gathering at its kitchen space in Pico-Robertson to prepare meals for those in need.

The Jan. 19 event drew students and families from Chabad of Northridge as well as local community leaders, including Jewish Federation Los Angeles CEO Rabbi Noah Farkas and Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.

Volunteers were divided into groups. Some prepared meatballs. Nearby, adults old enough to use sharp knives busied themselves with chopping vegetables, dicing squash into small cubes and removing the seeds from green bell peppers. Afterwards, everyone came together to bake chocolate chip cookies.

Indeed, it was a raucous, bustling atmosphere in OBKLA’s 4,600-square-foot kitchen space as everyone was still reeling from the fires that had devastated Altadena and the Pacific Palisades earlier this month.

OBKLA has organized multiple meal-prep sessions since the fires began, and people have been clamoring to help. Volunteer spots have been filling up in a matter of minutes, OBKLA Executive Director Yossi Segelmantold the Journal, resulting in a waitlist of approximately 1,500 volunteers.

“All we did since Jan. 9^th is turbo-charge what it is we do all day, every day,” Segelman said. “We’re really trying to give people an opportunity to come and volunteer, even for a short period of time.”

This past Sunday, as the volunteers worked toward the goal of preparing 500 ready-to-eat meals, Leon Jankswas among those who turned out.

“The reason I support OBKLA is because it’s very easy to see the impact,” Janks, who was with his daughter and grandson, said. “You can measure the results. You get a lot of volunteers to come here and enjoy the experience of giving back. With not-for-profits, often it’s not easy to quantify the impact on the community. In this situation, Yossi [Segelman] measures exactly how much is produced, where it gets distributed, and the fact that it gets distributed to both Jews and non-Jews is very appealing to me. It’s really a community-based operation that serves everyone.”

“The metrics for me are the looks on people’s faces and that they’re not on their phone for two hours,” Segelman said.

OBKLA’s mission is uniting volunteers to cook and package meals for those facing hardship. The organization originated in Sydney, Australia before Segelman and his wife, Chaya, brought OBKLA to Los Angeles during the pandemic. The two started small, packing snack boxes in their garage. With the support of those including OBKLA Advisory Council Founding Chair Avi Hager, OBKLA’s work grew into a destination of volunteerism, where families and schools come together to cook and distribute meals for those in need.

In 2022, with the support of the Feder family, the group was able to move into its current kitchen space, the Margaret Feder Our Big Kitchen Los Angeles, which is in the heart of the city’s observant Jewish community. Margaret was a Holocaust survivor from Hungary.

The Museum of Tolerance lit its building—located on Pico Boulevard—blue on the event of Jan. 19 to honor the release of three Israeli hostages that were freed from Hamas’ captivity earlier in the day, sending a message of hope and solidarity.

“In honor of the release of three Israeli hostages, The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles lit its building in blue on Sunday night,” a MOT statement said. “It will do so every time hostages are released to offer a wordless tribute to hostages returning home, those left behind, and those forever lost. This powerful and symbolic act will continue each night a hostage is released, Israeli, American, or from communities around the world.”

The blue light stands as a beacon of hope, healing, and solidarity, a tribute to those returning home, and a memorial for those who perished, according to the museum.

“We join the global community in praying for the safe return and recovery of all of the hostages, for those who perished to receive a proper burial in the land of Israel, and for an end to the suffering of civilians throughout this war,” the museum’s leadership said. “This light is our message: we welcome them home, and we will never forget.”