Help us feed refugees from Ukraine

Yep, sometime around the middle of November we hit a million pounds. Not bad for a group of amateur farmers in the middle of nowhere Moldova…

We never expected to still be here, doing what we do, nine months after hearing those fighter jets back in February. Question is, will I be saying the same thing two years from now..?

We were able to hit such a significant milestone because in addition to the 9 kilo (20 pound) bags of local, fresh food we supply to 2,000 city-based families every week, since August, we’ve been driving around the country serving an additional 500-1,000 per week, and boy are they appreciative. Sure, some get occasional donations from other sources, but more than half the places we visited haven’t gotten any love at all, what we call the forgotten corners of Moldova, where refugees are mostly staying in abandoned houses.

What gets everyone’s attention is that our delivery model is unique, and empowering, where people enter the truck and choose what they want. Check out the video link below.

We’re also making plans to shift the urban food bank to a “serve yourself” model as well, but there are some cultural and bureaucratic hurdles to overcome first. We expect to have it up and running by late December.

And lastly, I wanted to introduce you to Danik, the guy in the cover photo of this report. He’s part of the team that packs fruits and vegetables, and he shared this photo recently because he got excited about his new work uniform.

You see, Danik is 24 years old, and this is his first job.

The reason for that is probably because Danik wasn’t considered a competitive applicant by other employers, even though he wanted to work, and wanted to become more independent.

For our refugee project, he is perfectly qualified, and really enjoys what he does - weighing fresh produce and organizing the workspace and making sure each donation has the correct number of components. Danik also comes to work about 20 minutes early and helps make hot drinks for others.

What’s important about how we came to find Danik, and 5 other adults with similar profiles, is that it was an organic process, not a decision based on pity or some quota system.

It came about a few months ago when a friend of Katalyst was visiting from Norway, curious about our operation. She could see that we are very busy, and appreciated by the refugees we serve, but I shared that part of me isn’t satisfied, because we aren’t really “katalyzing” much, we’re not contributing to self-development or sustainable change, that we’re pretty much just moving stuff from point A to point B, and that for those who are packing, it may have been fine the first months, but now it’s boring and just a job. At that point she shared about a relative on the Autism spectrum who could totally do that kind of work. So the next week we partnered with an organization that provides vocational and life-skills trainings for young adults, and they identified candidates who were ready to start immediately. Some work every day, others less often, some prefer to do the who process themselves while others form an assembly line, with one weighing produce, the next tying the sack while a third places everything into a finished bag.

I felt it was important that the packing zone is near where people pick up their donations, so recipients can see not only how much work is involved, but gives them a chance to thank whoever is working that day.

Being appreciated AND earning an honest paycheck, can’t beat that.

Links:

• Video of our mobile food truck
• Video of our farmers
• A post about our farmers