Love beyond the kitchen

She holds the crown as Australia’s original MasterChef and bravely donned a blue apron again this year in the battle to find MasterChef’s All Star.

But there’s a lot more to Julie Goodwin than finger-licking good, home-style cooking. And it’s this other love that will bring her to Adelaide in November.

Julie and her family experienced a world very far away from Australia when they travelled to India in 2010 as part of Julie’s ambassadorship with 40K Foundation Australia. Let’s say they weren’t there to sample India’s culinary delights.

“The abject poverty I saw in India was like nothing I could have ever imagined; until you’ve walked through it, you can’t imagine it; you can’t know it,” she said.

“I thought to myself; ‘imagine if my children had to live like that; imagine if my children didn’t have access to an education’.”

It was this experience, Julie explains, that concreted her commitment to 40K Foundation and their mission to creating cost-effective, poverty-reducing education programs in India.

“What I see with 40K is that they have done what they said they were going to do,” she said. “Against all the odds they built a school. 

That was exactly two years ago this month, with the school now providing a free education to 85 children from surrounding quarries and hostels, as well as supporting 20 orphaned and underprivileged children.

“Each and every child that attends that school is equipped with the tools to break out of the cycle of poverty they were born into.”

“But it doesn’t stop there; it impacts their children, and their children’s children. We’re talking about millions of people.” 

Julie said what she experienced in India “hit her body like a hammer”. And she wasn’t the only one.

“My children aren’t the same since they saw the lives of the children in India. They’re much more grateful, they’re much more aware; they understand how they live in the world, and appreciate how other people live in the world.”

“As for me - I’m a more complete human being for what I know, and I’m really grateful to 40K for that.” 

“It’s an energising and a wonderful project to be a part of.”

Julie will be hitting South Australia on Saturday 3 November as a special guest at the 40K Foundation Big Night Out gala fundraising dinner in Adelaide. For event information and ticket sales, visit www.40K.com.au and click on the fundraising tab. 

For more information call Jodie Chetcuti on 0411 805 505 or jodie.odea@gmail.com