Meals made with young love

COOK4CALD
Passionate. Inspiring. Selfless

Young Ashvina De Zoysa defied the odds when she launched COOK4CALD to give people in need home-cooked meals.

Ashvina is determined to do something to help the thousands of people in her area of Melbourne who live in poverty. So, she started her youth-run non-profit to gift struggling families a nutritious and tasty meal during summer, traditionally a time for celebration and lots of eating.

The 22-year-old persevered with sourcing donations to make her novel project work, despite the naysayers telling her she was too young and inexperienced to succeed.

Ashvina proudly proved the doubters wrong, delivering red Thai curry, chicken biriyani, butter chicken and other delicious meals in sustainable packaging to 80 people every Sunday throughout last summer.

She was helped by over 50 enthusiastic volunteers, with social media the key to raising the non-profit’s profile.

COOK4CALD will run its program again this summer. Ashvina’s greatest hope is that her efforts will inspire and empower other young people to tackle disadvantage.

She says it is incredible to be nominated as a Westfield Local Hero. “It makes my passion for my cause so much stronger. I will always strive for equality of status for marginalised communities.”

Westfield Local Heroes are nominated and voted for by their communities, with the three top finalists per Westfield centre each awarded a $10,000 grant for their affiliated organisation. COOK4CALD will use its funds to rent additional kitchen space to reach more people in the community.

For further information on the Westfield Local Heroes program, click here