An employee story by Dina Smirnov
In spring I learned that there is a food shortage and crazy prices on basic food supplies in the Kharkiv area. I reached out to the EyeOn Foundation and asked for help. We contacted a restaurant in Kharkiv which has been converted into an aid center by volunteers. This organization is named after the date the war started: 24.02. They cook daily meals for Kharkiv’s residents who lost their homes or cannot afford buying food. The volunteers’ biggest challenge is obtaining basic foods for the meals they cook. There is little left for sale in that part of Ukraine; and what is available is very expensive.
The EyeOn consumer products team reached out to their contacts (our customers) for help. We received a donation of 2 pallets (a full van) of cookies from Peijnenburg. These were transported to Ukraine and delivered to children in the Mykolaiv region.
The EyeOn Foundation donated money for buying food at Makro (through EyeOn connections). We bought 8 pallets of shelf-stable food (more than 5 tons of spaghetti, beef, vegetables, and rice). The Makro pallets were gradually shipped to Ukraine, first by passenger vans from ‘Fast Lane Ukraine’, and finally a big truck came and picked up all the rest. The food was transported to a warehouse in Poland, and from there forwarded to Kharkiv.
Thank you to the volunteers of 24.02, Ruud van der Heijden from Peijnenburg, Makro, Fast Lane Ukraine, André Vriens, Ieke le Blanc, Andries Mulder, and all the others that contributed!