Organisers ‘overwhelmed’ by support at Ukraine Cuisine fundraiser

Around 300 people attended the Ukraine Cuisine fundraiser at Downing Place United Reformed Church on Saturday – and the showcase of Ukrainian culinary delights proved a huge success for both the Ukrainian community in Cambridge and guests sampling many dishes for the first time.

More than 104,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the UK since the Russian invasion in February. There are 385 guests in 203 households in the city area. The cultural shift has been huge, both for Ukrainians arriving and for the indigenous population as they facilitate home-building and the numerous challenges including linguistic and paperwork.

The event celebrated the progress that has been made in Cambridge while maintaining links with family and friends at home. Children are going to school, adults are working, not just for themselves but for their families and friends back home.

The preparation of the food – 1,000 dumplings were made, to give you an idea of the scale of the project – took place at the home of Rend Platings of organisers Mums4Ukraine.

Here’s a vlog which shows you what was involved:

Rend Platings of organisers Mums4Ukranie said at the venue: “We deliberately didn’t want to price our food too high so it gives everyone a chance to discover Ukrainian food in a really accessible way. A lot of people who’ve come are also Ukrainian and it would have been too much if we’d made it too expensive.

“We were overwhelmed with the amount of support we got and I’d like to thank everybody who has supported us.”

The team serving the food included Alyona and Tanya, plus Liliya Pochkun of Cambridge4Ukraine.

As well as the food stalls, managed by Liliya Pochkun plus Alyona and Tanya, there were craft stalls, face painting, a children’s area, and a cake stall.

Among the Ukrainians were a family from Kherson. Olena Leskova arrived with her son Oleksiy Ivankov earlier this year, while the boy’s father, Dmytro Ivankov, arrived from Kherson earlier this month.

Oleksiy attends Netherhall School. How’s it going, I ask?

“Good,” he says.

It’s a big school these days?

“Sure,” Oleksiy says.

One of those running a stall was Praveena Rao, who works for a software engineering company in the city and had made some coasters and Ukrainian-themed wristbands in the distinctive yellow and blue colours of the Ukrainian flag.

“I've started doing this pretty recently, exclusively for charity sales,” Praveena told the Cambridge Independent. “Designing mandalas is a longtime hobby and I thought it'd be nice to design something to sell for the charity. I donate 100 per cent to whoever is organising the event. In the Downing Place United Reformed Church, I was able to sell four of them for around £40. People have been very generous and I'm very happy about that.

“Audrey from Mums4Ukraine also has plans to include some of my items in a webshop she is adding to the Mums4Ukraine website.”

Did you enjoy the day?

“Yes definitely, it was my first time meeting so many Ukrainians in one place and I really liked being there. The food was delicious – it was my first time tasting Ukrainian cuisine – and the people were very warm and friendly.”