Help us feed refugees from Ukraine

For those of you curious how procurement works around here:

(me) – so, I heard you guys have decent cucumbers

(farmer, looking down) – well, I don’t know…

(me) – cool, so, I’ll take ‘em

(farmer) – um, so uh, like how many, I have 6 crates ready to go

(me) – yeah, I’ll go ahead and take ‘em all

- dramatic pause -

(me) – for the rest of the season

- crickets -

(farmer) – oh

(farmer, making eye contact now) – you uh, don’t want to know the price?

(me) – I was assuming it’d be a fair price

(farmer) – oh, yeah, totally, a fair price, especially since I don’t have to haul them to the market and stand around trying to sell what I can

(me) – guess that leaves you more time for day-trading

(farmer) – is that what the kids are doing with those phones that have TVs on ‘em?

But seriously, starting a few weeks ago we’re able to give out strawberries, cherries and cucumbers, and from this week, new potatoes. People love it, plus we get continuous feedback that the hot bread is still a hit (judging by all the kids who immediately rip open the bag then head for the nearest tree).

I think that’s one big difference between how we approach the situation and some of the bigger guys, we have a client orientation, continuously engaging, trying to be relevant, and having fun. Sure, it’s free stuff, and that shouldn’t be hard to give away, but you’d be surprised how many other initiatives have come and gone, either because they burned out, weren’t well organized, or had a hard time with moving targets. Also, if your box of free stuff is the same as what 4 others are handing out, how do you know they aren’t getting stacked up in the closet…or traded for some sandals?

Another big difference is that we measure success differently. Those with a more bureaucratic mindset are trying to maximize meals or calories or kilograms per dollar, whereas we’re trying to provide the most vitamins, and color diversity (within a very lean budget). Sure, we started with beans and rice the first weeks, then we evolved the menu…and now we have over 8k families on the waiting list…

Which reminds me of an interesting phenomenon our distribution team has picked up on in the last weeks, people returning from Europe and from Ukraine (who were here a month ago). We suspected that Moldova would be a good “home away from home”, because Russian is spoken here, unlike Europe, because the culture and diet and lifestyle are pretty much the same, and most importantly, because the cost of living is 20-30% less than in neighboring Romania (and much less than western European countries). Anyway, as of last month a sociologist joined our team, she came back to Moldova this summer to “finish that next chapter”, but jumped right in to engaging our visitors from Ukraine, to help us better understand their plans, their needs and their skill sets (because we need to add a few more to the team).

So back to our waiting list that’s getting out of hand, in the next weeks we’re going to start the next level of food support, a mobile farmers’ market (check out the teasers below). We’re getting 2 trucks and will convert them with shelves and tents and an extra door, so people can enter, choose what they want, then be on their way. We think having a sense of control, especially about something as intimate as the food you put in your body, is undervalued. You’re staying in a strange place, without a job, not sure where all your friends and family are, not sure where you’ll be next month, but you know your way around the kitchen, how to satisfy the kids, and that’s not nothing.

Let’s focus on simple pleasures, one plate at a time.

Links:

• A short video about our work, and summer plans