We are impressed and profoundly moved by the commitment of our members and all those who are helping us. However, we need more help. Food is needed in Ukraine and Moldova.
We need non-perishable food, baby food, ready-to-eat food as well as water.
We also need funds to deliver food and reinforce our logistic.
We ask everyone to join our campaign #AllTogether4Ukraine.
As the van travels along the highway towards Warsaw airport, the sky and the valleys transport me back to the Moldovan hills and meadows, which we left just two days ago. While this leg of our intense journey is coming to an end, in front of us there are so many other journeys that are only getting started.
Today is Tuesday, 12th of April, one week since I left Milano Malpensa as a FEBA volunteer, heading for Bucharest. The “departure” was something special: the employees of the Milan Linate and Malpensa airports, managed by SEA, had collected 16.5 tonnes of food, with 4.5 additional tonnes of Tuna donated by Bolton Group and 200 kg of honey from 3bee. DHL Express made available one of their cargo planes to deliver those donations to Banca pentru Alimente, FEBA Food Bank member in Romania. I was there to witness and tell this heartening story, together with Angela and Marco from FEBA.
It was the first time I flew in the cockpit, which is truly an amazing experience.
5th of April - Bucharest, Romania
Once in Bucharest, the astonishment became an even greater emotion, as we physically entered a space where the consequences of war can be felt.
We went straight to a former hotel called Casa Alex where the association Inimi Nobile, which means “Noble Heart”, hosts a group of Ukrainian refugees.
First thing that came to my eyes were these countless, coloured baby shoes lined up under a black shelf. Inimi Nobile hosts grandmothers, mothers and children, whose husbands could not exit Ukraine. I wish I could give you an idea of how much shared sufferance can create such an intimate atmosphere, which is palpably felt. We unloaded the trucks of food with the help of these families, we enjoyed the incomparable smile on their faces, waved goodbye and continue our journey.
6th of April - Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Early on Wednesday morning, Gabriel, President of Banca pentru Alimente, picked us up, we drove through Romania for 400 kilometres and eventually stop at a warehouse in Roman. Thing is, the warehouse is part of a bigger complex, which includes a kindergarten and a brick factory. The complex is managed by Father Lucian, a tall and smiling Franciscan priest who offered us lunch inside the school’s canteen. The stairs were crowded with excited children brimming with life, all coming from poor families. “Unlike other children, they love school times and hate holidays. For some of them, the one they get at school is the only meal of the day.” Lucian said. We had a quick coffee with Romuald, President of Banca pentru Alimente Roman, and helped him load the truck headed for Chernivtsi, a Ukrainian city just across the border.
That is when our first travel to Ukraine began.
Custom’s procedures took very long, as you can imagine, and for the whole time you see these young boys and girls wearing uniforms and carrying rifles.
We bounced across potholed tracks until we reached Chernivtsi’s main storehouse. Which we quickly learned was managed by a civil servant who didn’t speak a word in English, and we didn’t speak any Ukrainian.
For a lucky twist of destiny Nicola appeared, another Franciscan and friend of Fr. Lucian. Nicola was born in L’viv and studied in Rome. His fluent Italian helped us to get a clear understanding of how the supply of food donations were supporting the crisis in Western Ukraine. Sometimes you instantly become friend with someone you’ve never met before, and with Nicola was one of these rare times. “I manage a children school in L’viv, please come see me for a coffee when you’ll be there” he said, “We’ll hopefully see you next Monday then” we gratefully replied.
7th of April - Chişinău, Moldova
After spending the night at the Franciscan seminary in Roman, Gabriel took us to Iasi, at the border with Moldova. Now our journey would proceed with another Food Bank: Banca de Alimente, managed by Igor, a gentle and neat individual born in Chişinău. Igor studied medicine with Oleg, and now they spend most of their time managing the Food Bank.
Igor and Oleg have been working tirelessly since the war broke out. Before the war Chişinău was already home to the highest number of disadvantaged people in Europe and the war has worsened the situation further.
Almost 40% of food was supplied to Moldova from Ukraine before the war, which has placed huge pressure on an already struggling nation.
Life though, is greater than numbers. A blonde woman is tirelessly making food boxes in a hidden corner of the Food Bank warehouse, her name is Luda. She fled from Kyiv, scared, not knowing where to go or what to do, she met a volunteer of Banca de Alimente and was offered a job. “I needed a job, and this allows me not only to work, but to work for my country. I’m so thankful to everyone here.” She burst into tears.
8th of April - Slobozia, Moldova and Starocozache, Ukraine
We accompany the food boxes assembled by Luda and the other volunteers to Starocozache, a little cluster of Ukrainian villages, and support their distribution in the communities.
Before though, we needed to see two other key places.
The first was one of 28 hubs established by the municipality of Chişinău to support the refugee crisis. Long queues are formed outside the centre every day. While inside the hub, hundreds of people, many of whom are students, unload and distribute food, clothes, and hygiene products.
We also stopped at primary school in Slobozia, a Moldovan village 70km from Odessa, where a food distribution point for refugees has been created. “The night the war began, we woke up hearing bombs”, the mayor told us. As the Banca de Alimente truck pulled up mothers and children gathered around to collect a food package, reminding me of the women we had met in Bucharest. Silently, discreetly, every family collected their package.
It took us 4 hours to reach Starocozache after an intense experience with customs.
When we arrived a group of men were waiting to unload the van. Silent and proud they looked at us while we filmed the delivery. I got talking to Tato, a Georgian who grew up in Ukraine, similar in age to me. “Do you have to join the army?” I asked. “Yes sir, we all have to join the army, whenever they call us”, he answered.
I asked about the impact of the donations, and Tato explained just how reliant they were on the food. “We are extremely thankful for this. We need and will continue to need these donations for God knows how much more time.”
9th of April - Warsaw, Poland
Early on the morning of April 9th, two friends of Oleg kindly brought us back again to Iasi airport. Over the weekend we would prepare for our visit to L’viv.
In Warsaw we met Beata, President of Federacja Polskich Bankow Żywności, the Polish Food Bank. Poland has welcomed more than 3 million fleeing from Ukraine, more than any other country.
“The food emergency in Poland has been a dramatic reality for the last 2 years. People have lost their jobs because of pandemic, and we had an increasing number of people experiencing poverty. Now the war has come and made everything even worse” explained Beata “The situation is evolving and it’s difficult to predict how to respond. We don’t know if refugees plan to stay here or will go back to Ukraine. But this makes even more difficult to plan and deliver the aid efficiently.”
11th of April - Przemysl, Poland and L’viv, Ukraine
Marek, Adrien, Magda and Mariusz, left Olsztyn (North of Poland, when I said it is spelled like Austin, Texas, they didn’t look excited) at 3am to pick us up at 6am in Warsaw. They would have driven the entire day, literally around the clock, to reach Przemysl and, from there, L’viv. our first stop was in the outskirt of Kielce, where the Polish Food Bank have their biggest warehouse which they share with Caritas. We loaded the truck with rice, pasta, canned meat, hygiene products, cereals and hit the road again.
We tried to meet our Franciscan friend Nicola in L'viv, but this is what he said when we called him: "I am very sorry that I cannot meet you today, unfortunately. I have been called up by the army, and although I cannot carry a rifle, I will serve as chaplain. The thing is that I have to finish everything, because I have to hand over the direction of the school before I leave. I'm a bit worried".
We arrived at a big parking lot appeared surrounded by tents and flags, with a big structure at the end of the carpark, “This used to be a mall, but since the war broke out it has been transformed into a welcoming centre.” Mariusz explained to us. An enormous sign waved on the roof: Przemysl. As I opened the car door to drop off, a gust of wind hit me strongly. Temperatures have been rising lately, but the Polish wind can blow a chilly breeze, even when the sun is shining. Now the place is not as crowded as it was only a fortnight ago, there are still refugees going back and forth, but the car park is almost empty. Yet, it is as if you can still see all the millions of refugees who have passed through here, millions of elderly people, mothers, and children, arriving at this car park, in the freezing winds, snow and ice.
We met with Magda’s sister, who works with Caritas, and started following her van towards the border.
We proceeded through customs and entered the Ukrainian part of a region once called Galicia: home to ochre hills and vast valleys. If you go down that long road from Poland to L’viv these days, you’ll see two things mostly: the splendid golden domes of the orthodox churches and the high batteries of sand pillows piled up as checkpoints outside each village.
It was in one of these churches that we stopped to pick up a priest from Mostys'ka, who would drive the Caritas van with Magda’s sister. We were fools to think the driving would have been slow and moderate… the priest was totally devoted to the mission of delivering food donations in time, and the speed was a vital factor.
We arrived at a huge storehouse, right outside L’viv. From there, Ania and the volunteers of Food Bank Ukraine, working side by side with other organisations, resupply Ukrainian cities with food. They are all united for the same cause, and do not seem willing to give up any time soon.
Back on the road to L’viv, we stopped many times along the way, to meet families, friends, or relatives, who are in contact with Caritas or Banki Zwnosci, each time with a package, a letter, a smile.
At dusk we finally reached L’viv, where Caritas would done the final delivery. Standing in front of the city hall, for a moment, I heard a tram bell and I thought I was in Milan. Same paved streets, same Austrian imperial buildings, heard the same sounds and noises. Then the people suddenly disappeared, the shops and restaurants closed their shutters, and the only young people left on the sidewalk were wearing a uniform. We grabbed something to eat in a small shop and got on the van again to return to Poland and rest after a very long day.
12th of April - Highway towards the airport
Now I’m watching the hills and trees passing by on my way to the airport. It has been an intense journey, and a new chapter has just begun, in Chişinău as in L'viv, in Roman as in Chernivtsi. This is an untold story that we can write, we who have seen men and women unite with dignity in times of hardship and suffering. All of us can be protagonists of this new beginning, if we nurture the memory of these human lives that carry a secret stronger than destruction.
Kyiv City Charity Foundation “Food Bank” (KCCF) continues to operate on the ground in Kiev, Vinitsa, Lviv, Ternopil, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernovtsy.
KCCF implemented a technical possibility to donate via the website of the Food Bank and already collected 450 USD.
In total, since the start of the war, KCCF redistributed 830 tons of humanitarian aid.
240 tons came from abroad, among which 180 tons were redistributed. The remaining 60 tons are kept at the warehouses of Kyiv and Lviv as a stock reserve in case it would be needed. During the past week, about 62 tons were received from Portugal, Romania and Poland.
The remaining 650 tons of food and non-food products were donated by stores and local producers.
Logistic, ways to access the most suffering areas remain the main challenge for us. Shortage of the most needed products is also becoming a real issue.
From the very first days of the crisis in Ukraine, Banca de Alimente in Moldova offered its support to ensure the logistical support to food deliveries. In the initial phase everybody wants to help, but the lack of a mechanism to manage food donations can generate food waste rather than helping those in need.
Banca de Alimente is on the front line working in cooperation with two platforms: the first one is the one of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Moldova, the second one is the platform of the Municipality of Chisinau.
About 150,000 refugees arrived in Moldova. Now they need food to come from outside Moldova because it is more and more difficult to get it internally. At the same time, they need money for logistics.
The Food Bank already managed to bring food to Ukraine to Caritas Odessa. The products are for families, children and the elderly affected by the war. On 24 March 3 pallets of food were sent by Food Bank Greece to the Food Bank in Romania who then passed the food to Banca de Alimente Chisinau, Moldova. And on 26 March, the Romanian Federation of Food Banks brought 12 vans and cars with 12.679 kg basic necessities, baby and adult food, clothing and hygiene products. The food will help Ukrainian refugees arriving in Moldova.
At national level, the Federation of Polish Food Banks organised range of activities, comprising fundraising, food collections, recovery of food donated by companies, as well as redistribution of food to charities in Poland and abroad. To date, 182 tonnes of food stemming, among others, from large retail chains and companies, have been transferred to local Food Banks in Poland and Ukrainian cities, such as Kiev, Kharkiv, Hrubieszow, Lviv, Lutsk, and Nowołyńska.
Across Poland, several initiatives have been started, comprising the setup of collection points in public spaces.
Besides recovering and redistributing food, Food Banks further support the establishment of night shelters, maintain close contact with public administration officers, and are part of crisis teams. The most significant challenge faced is to provide food, clothes, and hygiene products to enable decent living conditions.
Read more about the actions taken by the Polish Food Banks in this report and watch the videos of the help provided by the Polish Food Banks here.
The Food Banks in Romania are still very active to help the refugees fleeing from Ukraine as well as the Ukrainian Food Bank.
Until now, approximately 112 tons of food were collected at national level, from which more than 80 tons were sent to the Ukrainian Food Bank and other partners, while more than 30 tons were used to support the partner 75 NGOs from Romania that take care of over 5,000 refugees coming from Ukraine.
In order to keep fulfilling their mission, the Food Banks are running a campaign with the main partners from the retail industry: 110 Lidl stores, 50 Kaufland stores, 40 Auchan stores and 12 Selgros stores.
Thanks to the support of Lidl Romania and other local companies (Caroli Foods, Danone etc), the Food Banks were able to send 3 trucks with food and non-food products as well as several vans in Ukraine, either at the Ukrainian Food Bank or at the Caritas Cernauti Association.
The wave of solidarity coming from the FEBA members in Europe is also very important. The Greek Food Bank sent 2 trucks of food and hygiene products (read more about it here). On 25 March, the Food Bank in Romania received again 3 pallets of food from Food Bank Greece and then passed the food to Banca de Alimente Chisinau in Moldova, to help Ukrainian refugees. France also sent 3 trucks to the Food Banks in Oradea, Roman and Bucharest at the beginning of April.
Potravinová Banka Slovenska, our Food Bank member in Slovakia is currently focusing all the efforts and assistance on supporting charities that provide meals at border crossings, in refugee centres and at the railway station in Košice.
The Food Bank also supplies food to accommodation facilities, where people accommodate and take care of refugees at their own expenses.
From 14 March, two central “hotspots” will be created for refugees. Potravinová Banka Slovenska also plans on supporting these places with food.
The Food Bank is currently trying to secure food directly to the warehouse of the Ukrainian Food Bank, which is close to Lviv. Some Slovakian charities have already distributed food aid to their partner organizations in Ukraine.
The European Food Banks Federation (FEBA) is a European non-profit organisation and works in collaboration with 24 Full Members and 6 Associate Members in 30 European countries.
Since 1986, FEBA mission has consisted in representing its membership at European and international level; supporting and strengthening Food Banks in Europe by providing training, sharing best practice and knowledge, and developing partnerships; and fostering the creation of new Food Banks. FEBA brings together a network of Food Banks which are committed to prevent food waste and to reduce food insecurity.
In 2021, the 341 Food Banks belonging to our membership redistributed 907,280 tonnes of food to 45,810 charitable organisations providing food assistance to 11.8 million most deprived people thanks to the professionalism of 39,781 co-workers (83% volunteers).
In addition to surplus food from the food supply chain, FEBA Members also redistribute food from the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) and the Fruits and Vegetables withdrawal scheme, as well as from individual and corporate food collections
Do you have any questions?
Please write to alltogether4ukraine@eurofoodbank.org.
We will be happy to help you!
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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