WCK restaurant model uplifts local economy in Ukraine
WCK began building a network of restaurants in Ukraine within days of the full-scale Russian invasion. Even before our Relief Team was able to enter the country, restaurant partners were cooking meals for people fleeing the conflict or sheltering in the face of relentless attacks. In the months that followed, this network expanded to include more than 500 restaurants, food trucks, and caterers that helped provide millions of meals to Ukrainians in need, ensured restaurants and their staff could keep cooking, and offered much-needed economic support.
WCK pioneered this restaurant model in 2020 when we saw millions of people struggling to access fresh, nutritious food while thousands of stocked restaurant kitchens sat unused. In light of the exponential need, we launched our Restaurants for the People program, which tackled the growing crisis on two fronts by paying local restaurants to cook nourishing meals for their neighbors in need—getting food to hungry people while at the same time keeping restaurants and their teams open and working. Both in response to Covid and to the invasion of Ukraine, this model has disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars to support businesses at a time of extreme hardship.
Today, acute food needs in Ukraine have shifted to newly liberated and frontline communities—mostly along the country’s east and south. As a result, many of our restaurant partners in other parts of the country have reopened to the general public, buoyed by the support they received from WCK. Our teams still maintain close relationships with many restaurants and several remain invaluable partners helping our Emergency Response Team provide food as quickly as possible to civilians impacted by Russian attacks.
Learn more about our #ChefsForUkraine response here. For real-time updates, follow WCK on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Olha
We fed people at the train station, in volunteer centers, in kindergartens, in schools, wherever we could.
Alex
[WCK] solved a key issue: we began to prepare large quantities of food more efficiently and at much lower cost.
Dariya
A lot of different restaurants, big and small ones, with traditional or international cuisines joined with one goal, to feed people.
