The three shipping containers filled with food and winter clothes arrived and have provided much needed relief to the people of Ukraine. The churches and Christians have worked hours and driven thousands of miles to distribute the food and items from the containers to hurting Ukrainians.
The first container arrived in Kiev and was unloaded by volunteers from the Poznyaki congregation in the warehouse we rented. The food from the containers, along with local food and winter supplies, await the teams who put together boxes or bags of food to feed a family for one month.
Delivery teams pick up loads of food using cars or delivery vans purchased by GRM funding. Each load will feed 200 families for a month. It costs less than $2.00 per day to feed a Ukrainian family of three for one month. Food and supplies are delivered by graduates of UBI, our training school, to one of a dozen congregations scattered across Ukraine. Those churches then distribute the food to their members and their friends and neighbors who are in need. Some of the food is purchased in Ukraine or Poland - things like canned meats, rice, macaroni, sugar, oil, and evaporated milk. A month's supply of those commodities, along with the freeze-dried food from the containers, is bundled by volunteers to be distributed to hungry Ukrainian families.
Local churches, most planted by graduates of UBI, serve as distribution centers for their area and community. Extra food supplies are being stored at these local distribution points as hard winter arrives making travel more difficult. Because power and heating infrastructure has been destroyed in many cities and villages, church buildings are being used not only as food distribution sites, but also heating centers where local residents can come to warm themselves. We are purchasing wood burning stoves and loads of firewood for rural villages and generators for urban centers. The church in Irpin, where two of our UBI graduates are serving, is using the wood burning stove pictured to serve their small congregation and to help provide a warming station for their community.
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