Hot meals bring a feeling of home, comfort and care for displaced Ukrainians

The mouthwatering smell spreads through the cold February air of Novomoskovsk City, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, in southeastern Ukraine. Ukrainians who are waiting in line, many of them feel they have been forgotten, are relieved that people care for them.

The hot meals are carefully wrapped and provided to people in need from one of the mobile kitchens of Baptist World Alliance, World Vision’s local partner. The initiative is currently funded by World Vision USA. 

“The hot meal project is crucial because people receive not only in-kind assistance, but also have the chance to interact and get to know each other. They are provided with delicious food and taken care of, feeling this support and hope for a better future,” shares Alisa Bardashevska, World Vision's project officer.

Halyna, 48, an internally displaced woman from Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, spends all her earnings on the medical treatment of her husband and 11-year-old daughter, both of whom are disabled.

Her family of five people, including two children and an elderly mother, shares one small room in a communal house. The kitchen, which is shared by everyone in the complex, is not properly equipped to prepare meals for her loved ones. Currently, the mobile kitchen is the only place where the family can find hot and tasty food.

“The meals are very tasty here and it’s nice that we are taken care of. When you come here, you receive some kind of incentive and joy,” says Halyna.

The hot meal project is crucial because people receive not only in-kind assistance, but also have the chance to interact and get to know each other. They are provided with delicious food and taken care of, feeling this support and hope for a better future.

Volodymyr Krivenko has worked in the mobile kitchen in Novomoskovsk for almost a year now. He serves 250-300 meals every day.

“This is a great support for those who are displaced, for those who have meager pensions and salaries,” explains Krivenko.

He adds, "People tell us they are clueless about how they will afford a decent meal when we close the services. The war has left too many displaced without any means to cover their basic needs.”

Coming for hot meals for internally displaced people (IDPs) who are striving to start over is more than just getting food; it is also an opportunity to connect with individuals from their war-torn hometowns, finding compassion and empathy.

“There is no roof, no windows. The fence is broken. Everything is in ruins,” shares Tetiana, her voice trembling as she describes what remains of her beloved house. A house with blue curtains and a tiny yard where her children loved to chase chickens and she enjoyed planting greens and flowers.

Her beloved Siversk city, located in the Donetsk Oblast and on the front lines of the ongoing war, is now in rubble.

The woman still recalls as a nightmare the day she visited her hometown after a month of the beginning of the war.

“It was very scary. You could hear these terribly loud booms everywhere,” she shared.

“When I drove through the city, I couldn't recognize it because of the damage. The streets were awfully empty,” she added.

It was too hurtful to see her hometown in ruins, so Tetiana chose not to return. She spends a lot of time in Baptist World Alliance’s mobile kitchen, surrounded by people who understand what it is like to lose everything.

“I’ve been coming here for a long time. It’s great when someone takes care of these people. They even come up and just talk to me, and it makes me feel better,” she says.

Seven mobile kitchens and six collective centres of Baptist World Alliance serve displaced Ukrainians and people in need in Kyivska, Dnipropetrovska, Poltavska, Sumska and Kharkivska Oblasts since October 2023. 

 “During this project, from October to January, our partners distributed more than 34,000 hot meals and reached about 10,000 people”, Bardashevska adds.

In 2023, more than 121,000 individuals received hot food in the frame of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)-funded project, supported by ACTED Ukraine and the Ukrainian Response Consortium.

Story and photos by Tetiana Dolhiier, Communications Officer