Chabad of Troy built a kitchen to cook 10,000 meals for families who need them

Chabad of Troy, north of Detroit, has built a commercial kitchen in its new building so volunteers can cook meals for people who don't have enough to eat, the Detroit Jewish News reported on Oct. 21, 2026. The program is called Our Giving Kitchen, and the meals go out through food banks and local partners to Jews and non-Jews alike.

Rabbi Menachem Caytak, the center's executive director, expects to turn out about 10,000 meals in the first year. Full operations start at the beginning of November. Earlier in October, about 25 volunteers took part in a 90-minute soft launch, putting together food items while others made salads and packed meals for delivery.

Rabbi Caytak and his wife, Chana, visited the Our Giving Kitchen in Pittsburgh to see how it works before setting up their own. The Jewish News described the program as a growing franchise with locations in the United States and in Sydney, Australia. Caytak estimates there are more than a dozen.

The Pittsburgh kitchen was founded in 2020, during the pandemic, by Rabbi Chezky and Bassie Rosenfeld, according to a case study published by the fundraising platform Donorbox. It runs out of a commercial kitchen in Squirrel Hill. Volunteers there cook kosher meals from scratch, usually more than 100 dishes a session, and send them to food banks, shelters, community centers and houses of worship around Greater Pittsburgh. The case study said the kitchen made a record 25,000 meals in 2025 with about 1,850 volunteers a year.

Caytak told the Jewish News that his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who had gone without food, taught him never to waste it. Cooked meals matter, the paper noted, because some people lack the equipment, the housing or the work hours to cook for themselves. Caytak said the project "fits exactly what Chabad is about."

The Caytaks moved from New York to open Chabad of Troy in 2019, starting in a rented house, the Jewish News reported in August 2025. In their second year they bought a house in Troy that doubled as the Chabad House. In the third they rented a storefront in Auburn Hills that was crowded from the start. A separate Jewish News report put that space at 1,600 square feet, with events drawing 80 to 100 people. It also said the center had worked with more than 800 families and was the first of its kind on Metro Detroit's east side.

In December 2024, Chabad of Troy bought a former church of about 6,500 square feet on a roughly three-acre corner lot on Coolidge Highway, about a mile north of Somerset Mall. By August 2025, fundraising for the project had reached $3.2 million from 450 donors. From the start, the plans included a kitchen where volunteers could cook for people in need, along with classrooms, a hall and a play space.

Volunteers come from across Oakland and Macomb counties. Mark Yarsike of Sterling Heights helps with cooking, packing and getting the word out. Terry Kalley of Troy, a former nonprofit leader, fills several roles. Sharon Levy of Troy cooks. Eliyahu Davis of Troy wants to help raise money. Eugene Rivel of Rochester Hills, whose family came from the Soviet Union as refugees about 37 years ago, is also on the team. Marla and Art Scafe of Metamora gave from their retirement accounts and asked others to give too.

Weekly sessions are planned, building to several times a week, with ways for every age group to take part. The kitchen will also be rented out for private and corporate events. Volunteer dates are posted six weeks ahead at ogkdetroit.com.

How we reported this: based on the Detroit Jewish News report of Oct. 21, 2026, two earlier Jewish News reports on Chabad of Troy's building, and a Donorbox case study on Our Giving Kitchen Pittsburgh. We did not independently confirm the Pittsburgh meal and volunteer figures or the number of Our Giving Kitchen locations. Chesed organizations with a project to share can reach us at [email protected].