The Power of Giving & Sharing! 💙✨" Thank you, Sateesh Chandrashekhar, for highlighting such a beautiful part of Our Big Kitchen! 🙌 The spirit of Gemach lending is all about compassion, generosity, and community support—values that drive everything we do. 💛 Whether it’s sharing meals or making special moments more accessible, we believe giving is not just about charity, but about connection. We’re grateful to be part of a tradition that continues to bring people together! 🍽️🤝 #OurBigKitchen #Gemach #CommunityGiving #SharingWithHeart
Compassionate ‘Gemach’ Lending! While helping Our Big Kitchen (OBK) with their Salesforce implementation, we realized the immense draw their kitchen has for people wanting to contribute and share with the community in which they operate. During one my visits to meet with the Rabbi Dr Dovid Slavin, I had a short tour of the facility in which a particular section really caught my attention. It was a section where OBK stored a vast array of items for hosting wedding parties, all available for community members to borrow, use, and return without any cost. It was almost like Weddings “R” Us store sans the cost. Years later, I came to understand that this practice of communal sharing is deeply rooted in Jewish culture. The modern practice of sharing items is inspired by the traditional concept of a 'Gemach' which initially referred to an interest-free loan fund. but has since expanded to include the lending of various kind of goods. The traditional Gemach was meant for Jewish community members needing financial support. The money was raised from Jewish community as charitable donation for lending within the community. Classically, for the people, by the people! Of course, with digitization, Gemach lending looks different today, but it still serves the same purpose, i.e. compassionately lending to people in need across caste, creed and communities! I believe this approach is a great and multi-purpose way of practicing charity! Yes, lending can be compassionate! #Philanthropy #CommunityService #CompassionInAction #NonprofitOrg #CommunityImpact Rabbi Dr Dovid Slavin, Our Big Kitchen, Our Big Kitchen Los Angeles, Harish P., Dave Adler, Shishir Danani, Avinash Kumar, LendingLogik