Christmas comes to Community Kitchen

Children meeting Santa at Community Kitchen

The event brought together individuals and families from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds with western Sydney locals to share a delicious biryani lunch, create fun Christmas crafts and celebrate the successes of 2019.

Guests were treated to a performance by a local singer and African drummers, while a surprise visit from Santa brought a touch of Christmas spirit to the children with small gifts and candy canes.

Community Kitchen volunteer Mohamed said volunteering throughout the year has been a great experience that allowed him to meet many interesting people.

“Every fortnight you get to celebrate a different culture and get to know new people. It has been amazing to see so many people smiling.”

This year Community Kitchen has held 22 events and provided 70 different workshops on topics ranging from employment advice, sign language classes and group arts projects.

A team of volunteers have served more than 3,070 complementary meals since January. Each meal has reflected the diversity of Sydney’s west, allowing people to share their culture through the universal language of food.

Community Kitchen began as an opportunity to share a meal and has developed into a space for people to celebrate their cultures, learn about others, gain skills, build friendships and community connections and gain knowledge about local support services.

SSI appreciates the support of everyone who has attended, volunteered and worked at Community Kitchen throughout 2019, and we look forward to another exciting year in 2020. Community Kitchen will restart events in late January 2020. For more information on Community Kitchen, click here.