Solutions for Ukraine: US charity initiative raises funds for mobile bakeries to support Ukraine's eastern regions
Photo: Bake for Ukraine
The Ukrainian charity Bake for Ukraine, based in the United States, organized a campaign to bake the national bread – palianytsia – to raise money for renovating two mobile bakeries in Odesa. These bakeries will continue to produce bread in the eastern region of Ukraine.
Ukrinform writes about this.
What is the problem?
Volunteers from Bake for Ukraine bought two mobile bakeries in June and brought them to Odesa.
"No extra parts are available for these bakeries, so they will need to be produced. The workload is quite substantial. The bakeries were damaged by shelling and were brought from neighboring areas near Belarus," Mariia Kalenska, co-founder of the Bake for Ukraine project, said.
Photo: Bake for Ukraine
The first mobile bakery, purchased by Bake for Ukraine volunteers in 2023, now stands in Mykolaiv and provides bread to some villages in the south.
Photo: Bake for Ukraine
What is the solution?
That's why Bake for Ukraine organized a campaign in the United States to bake the national bread – palianytsia.
The volunteers will use the raised funds to renovate two mobile bakeries in Odesa, ensuring the ongoing production of bread in the eastern region of Ukraine.
Photo: Bake for Ukraine
How does it work?
"On Independence Day, we cooked palianytsia at a hundred American bakeries. We even hosted a celebration for the Ukrainian community in a few of them. Families came and sang Ukrainian songs together," the agency interviewee said.
Organizing such an event, according to the volunteer, was very difficult.
"Imagine that some small spot on the planet Earth forces 100 bakeries in America to bake Ukrainian bread. Americans like our bread, and some bakeries continue to bake it. We want palianytsia to become the new baguette and bake it worldwide. This is how we will become known not only with grain but also with the final product. The popularity of palianytsia will "work" for the economy," Kalenska says.
During the event, volunteers collected approximately 40,000 dollars, which will be used to repair the bakeries provided to Ukraine.
"We have a certain "philosophy" of baking bread. We bake it on sourdough without yeast and preservatives. This bread is incredibly beneficial, especially since the people we are baking it for are in difficult circumstances and don't have the means to eat well," the volunteer says.
Photo: Bake for Ukraine
According to her, these bakeries were built for the Swiss army in the 50s of the last century.
Bakeries are autonomous and can bake up to 2,000 loaves of bread 24 hours daily. They can work with coal, firewood, diesel fuel, and gas.
"This is a Rolls-Royce among bakeries," Mariia Kalenska added.
Photo: Bake for Ukraine
For reference:
The Bake for Ukraine campaign emerged at the start of a large-scale war and now has influence in the global baking community. All funding is provided by volunteers from outside Ukraine, with the majority of the team also residing outside the country. Initially, volunteers used the funds to assist local bakeries in Ukraine but later shifted towards purchasing mobile bakeries.
