Originally published in The Jewish Standard, April 2023:
Over 100 people recently tuned in on Zoom to Cooking for a Cause at Ve’ahavta, a charity dedicated to promoting self-sufficiency among those facing poverty and homelessness. The live cooking workshop was led by United Bakers’ Ruthie and Nathan Ladovsky with kitchen interns at Ve’ahavta’s commercial kitchen. They shared their restaurant’s soup secrets, along with some wonderful personal stories about the 112-yearold Toronto establishment and its founding family. Guests, who made and donated over 60 liters of soup, raised over $8,000 for Ve’ahavta’s robust suite of life-saving programs.
Seven night a week, from 6pm to midnight, staff and volunteers on Ve’ahavta’s two outreach vans visit shelters, clinics, and encampments in the downtown core and across Scarborough, delivering hot food, clothing, and other lifesaving supplies such as blankets, sleeping bags, hygiene products and harm reduction kits. “Partnering with United Bakers to raise money and make soup to feed those facing poverty and homelessness in our city is a beautiful way to fulfill the mitzvah of giving tzedakah and feeding the hungry,” says Cari Kozierok, Ve’ahavta’s Executive Director. “A pillar of Toronto’s Jewish communal life, they are dedicated to Tikkun Olam and they really do make the tastiest soup in the city.” “We are excited to again join Ve’ahavta in helping to feed their clients and fulfill the mitzvah to have fed the hungry,” says United Bakers’ Dairy Restaurant’s Nathan Ladovsky. Ve’ahavta takes its name from the Torah passage Ve’ahavta lerecha kamocha: to love your fellow human as yourself.
To learn more about Ve'Ahavta, please visit their website: https://veahavta.org/
