2 years & 260 million meals served

WCK began serving meals in Poland—where most Ukrainian refugees fled—within a day of Russia’s initial attack and set up at eight 24-hour border crossings within a week, quickly scaling production up to tens of thousands of meals per day.  

Five days after the invasion, José and several members of the Relief Team entered Ukraine for the first time, delivering food to families who were waiting for hours to cross on the Ukrainian side of the border. Meanwhile, WCK support had already begun within Ukraine as we were remotely working with restaurants in five cities cooking for neighbors in need. 

In early March 2022, the first WCK supply trucks began to reach destinations throughout Ukraine, becoming a lifeline as communities braced for an extensive siege that would fully interrupt access to food.

Later that spring, we had served 1 million meals and expanded our response to distribute hot meals and bulk food in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia, and Spain. We opened a kitchen and food supply depot in Przemyśl, a Polish city just miles from the Ukrainian border that acted as a hub for fleeing families.

By July 2022, the conflict had also become a war on food. Activity at ports and borders was disrupted. WCK food cargo trains, and restaurant and farm partners, had been hit by missiles. Still, every single day our teams showed up to provide nourishing meals and food aid to families in the country. Just five months into our response, these incredible teams served their 100 millionth meal in response to invasion.

WCK’s Relief Team immediately jumps in to support communities that have been living under occupation, bringing fresh food and meal kits as soon as it is safe to do so. In many cases, WCK teams are the first new faces seen by families sheltering for weeks in cold basements with no fresh food, water, and electricity.

Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city and remains a focal point for the war because it is only 25 miles from the Russian border. Our teams supported communities around Kharkiv after the region was liberated from Russian occupation. The liberation of this region is one of the most significant military gains by Ukraine since pushing Russian forces out of the outskirts of Kyiv in early April 2022. 

Similarly, WCK reached Irpin and Bucha shortly after they were retaken by Ukrainian forces and our team returned the next day with hundreds of hot meals and 13,000 pounds of food. We quickly began to reach other liberated communities throughout the region, delivering fresh meals and grocery kits.

As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, residents in cities like Dnipro remain under constant threat of bombardment. Day after day, Russian missiles and rockets fall on communities across Ukraine, further deteriorating access to food, water, and other basic necessities. 

We are able to reach the hardest-hit towns and villages thanks to the bravery and local expertise of our Emergency Response Team—our core group of Food Fighters working daily to provide immediate support following Russian attacks and other emergencies.

WCK’s Emergency Response Team was born out of necessity following an intense period of missile attacks in late 2022 and has responded to more than 160 incidents since then. These escalating attacks made it clear that we had to create a dedicated structure to be better prepared, because our help was needed almost every week. Our teams across the country saw a need to create the systems that would allow WCK to support communities as quickly as possible in the aftermath of an attack.

Our Emergency Response Team works daily to provide immediate support following attacks. WCK efforts are locally led—staff, partners, and volunteers in Ukraine have all been impacted by the war. Still, they show up every day for people in need.

Cities near the border with Russia have been under constant shelling for two years. Attacks on residential areas have left innocent civilians—including children and seniors—bearing the brunt of the war. Lives have been uprooted and any sense of normalcy stolen.

Since the first weeks of our response, WCK aid trucks reached frontline communities cut off from their regular food supply. Among the first destinations was Kramatorsk, where supplies were used to prepare thousands of food kits each day at a time when the entire region was under attack. 

With more aid organizations now present in large population centers, WCK teams are able to focus on supporting the most isolated, at risk, and hardest-hit regions of the country. We are prioritizing efforts aimed at supporting communities caught between the fighting to provide nourishing meals to the people who need them most—as quickly and safely as possible.

Ukrainian families are now living through their second full winter of the conflict. Even in the first months of the war, our team witnessed the suffering of families that fled for their lives in freezing cold temperatures.

Months later, as the first full winter of the conflict approached, we directed our efforts toward communities preparing to endure the coldest months of the year without access to electricity, heat, and other basic necessities because of attacks on energy and water systems. 

Russia’s attacks have not subsided during these frigid months. Missile and drone strikes on civilian infrastructure have left Ukrainians unsure of whether they’ll have access to heat and other utilities. The deeper into winter Ukraine gets, the more difficult conditions become. 

Across Ukraine, WCK built an extensive network of partners and volunteers who prepare meals for families impacted by the war. These partners put their lives on the line to support their neighbors and their bravery has driven the success of our efforts. They are the Food Fighters who ensure everyone in need has access to nourishing meals. The meals they prepare become signs of hope.

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’s restaurant model in Ukraine, and beyond, is addressing the food 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. In 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; several remain invaluable partners helping our Emergency Response Team provide food as quickly as possible to civilians impacted by Russian attacks.

Russian attacks have hit restaurant partners and community centers distributing WCK-provided meals. These attacks have killed and injured incredibly brave Food Fighters. The entire WCK community remembers them as true beacons of light, bravery, and hope in Ukraine. On July 25, 2022, Russian missiles hit a community center and humanitarian hub in the city of Chuhuiv. The community—located near Kharkiv—had been under constant shelling for weeks. The deadly strike claimed the lives of Sardor and Viktoria, two WCK friends who joined our effort because of their passion for serving their neighbors. As volunteers, Sardor and Viktoria used WCK-provided ingredients and equipment to help prepare thousands of meals for families in Chuhuiv.

In early June 2023, Igor—a WCK volunteer—was killed when a Russian missile hit his apartment building in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region. Igor volunteered for months to feed neighbors in his community, and we are forever inspired by his bravery and compassion. 

A Russian missile struck a community center in Orikhiv on July 10, 2023, and four brave Food Fighters tragically lost their lives. Tatyana, Iryna, Olga, and Vitaliy worked tirelessly to support their fellow Ukrainians. They would receive WCK meal kits and cook them at the center to distribute to people who could not cook for themselves.

Food aid is essential, but it is not enough to address the complex challenges facing communities impacted by the war. WCK is committed to providing hope beyond one plate of food at a time to meet Ukrainians’ unique needs. We are dedicated to bringing hope and support to people who need it most, one meal, seed packet, or Easter cake at a time.

Lack of access to clean water is one of the most critical issues affecting Ukrainians in frontline communities. Relentless Russian bombardment and occupation have left many regions struggling to access safe drinking water. The situation is particularly pronounced in the southern region of Kherson, where the Kakhovka dam explosion in June 2023 had severe consequences. The bursting of the dam led to a dramatic rise in water levels that contaminated wells, rendering the water undrinkable.

Many communities in the area remain dependent on external support to access water. WCK teams recognized the need for an enduring solution and created an ambitious plan: revamping the water systems of several frontline communities. This approach aims to provide a lasting solution that establishes the communities’ self-reliance and safeguards their health and wellbeing.

One of the communities where WCK implemented the plan is Mala Shestirnia, a small village in Kherson Oblast. Since the beginning of the war, residents here have faced a severe water crisis. Russian forces completely destroyed water supply systems that once served five communities, including Mala Shestirnia. This left the village’s 600 residents without access to potable water. Beyond the obvious challenges of meeting basic hydration needs, the inability to consistently access water impacts cooking and hygiene. The problem was so pronounced that families were at times unable to safely cook food provided by WCK. Now, Mala Shestirnia and other frontline communities again have access to water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.

Water is not the only staple that’s scarce as a result of the conflict. Fresh fruit and vegetables—critical components of a nourishing diet—are also hard to come by for many households. Since Russia’s invasion, countless Ukrainians have been unable to grow any food in their home gardens—a common practice for more than half of all households before the war. 

Ukraine’s agricultural production has suffered enormous losses. Reduced output of staples like grains has been a factor driving food and nutrition insecurity across the world.

Commercial and backyard farmers face myriad challenges including constant threat of attack, damaged infrastructure, a disrupted financial system, and lack of access to seeds. To support farmers, WCK has provided seed kits to the people of Ukraine. The packets include a variety of vegetables and herbs, like cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, lettuce, beets, dill, eggplant, onions, and peas.

In Svyatohirs’k, a city in Donetsk Oblast, our team visited Lida, who was eager to tell us about her commitment to farming. She had grown vegetables from WCK seed kits and was using them to make meals with her neighbor. They cook in an outdoor kitchen they built together after their apartment building was damaged by shelling.

Ukrainian families living under threat of Russian attack lack basic food and water, let alone the resources to celebrate special occasions. To help spread joy, WCK teams organize special distribution efforts throughout the year to mark major holidays. These efforts go beyond meals and typically include sweets, a rare treat under occupation.

Each year in May, we have served pasky—traditional Easter cakes. The cakes provide a momentary respite from the ongoing conflict and lift the spirits of families living in bomb shelters and damaged buildings. They know our teams are there to support them. WCK has provided thousands of pasky across Ukraine. 

For International Children’s Day, WCK’s Relief Team across Ukraine brought extra joy to meal distributions! From Kharkiv to Kherson, we provided balloons, games, and sweets. Events like this give kids the opportunity to just be kids.

During Christmas, our teams marked the holidays by providing goodie boxes to children in frontline communities. Distributed alongside much-needed humanitarian aid packages, the boxes were packed with sweets and brought smiles to kids and parents alike.

As we enter the third year of our #ChefsForUkraine response, our teams are reaching the hardest-hit communities in the country. We are working closely with the communities we serve to ensure the pressing needs of families enduring the horrors of this war are met.

WCK’s Food Fighters are showing up for especially vulnerable populations suffering from acute lack of food—seniors, persons with disabilities, and recently evacuated families. Their expertise is guiding our work as we look ahead to the coming months.