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A Ukrainian family who fled to safety in Jersey have come together with a local co-operative to cook traditional meals as a way of saying “thank you” to islanders, while raising money to help those still trapped in their war-torn country.
Yesterday, Annoshka Kehoe guided a team including her recently-arrived family and members of SCOOP to create Ukranian stuffed dumplings - Varenyky - with potato and caramelised onions, served with sauerkraut, a classic beetroot Borscht soup, and sour cream.
Annoshka's twin sister Tania Gsiuman, nephew Vlad Gsiuman and mother, Olga Kalugina, only arrived in Jersey a couple of weeks ago.
When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, the Odessa-based family fled their homes with little more than a backpack towards the Polish border.
Video: Annoshka and members of the SCOOP team spoke about the fundraiser with Express.
Sadly, Tania had to leave her husband, Vlad's father, behind in Ukraine, as men have been asked to remain and defend the country.
From Poland, the remaining trio were fortunately able to get visas, and be reunited with Annoshka in Jersey.
It was shortly into their time on the island when they were contacted by Kaspar Wimberley, co-founder of SCOOP.
"Every Friday we have a take home meal... We invite members of the community to come cook with us," he explained.
"We thought, let's make a Ukrainian special.
"We got in touch with some Ukranians in the island, some of whom have just arrived as refugees, and they were quite excited about joining us and teaching us a little bit about their food culture."
Photo: Annoushka's family and the SCOOP team in the kitchen yesterday.
More than 140 people placed orders for the Ukrainian meals and yesterday afternoon SCOOP's team came together with Annoshka's family to get cooking.
Annoshka explained to Express that her family had been overwhelmed by the kindness shown to them during their "very hard" time leaving the "horror" in Ukraine, and that helping to prepare traditional meals was a way of giving back.
"This way, we want to say thank you very very much for all your help, all your support."
Earlier this week, there was another food-related fundraiser for Ukraine.
Picture: The Fresh Crust Pizza Company opened on their day off last Monday to raise funds for Ukraine
Owner of the Fresh Crust Pizza Company Michael Steer and his partner Ukraine-born Natalia Baker raised more than £900 by opening the takeaway and donating all their profits to help Ukraine on a day they would normally take off.
Mike and Natalia described the fundraiser as a "complete success", explaining that the restaurant had "no choice but to stop taking orders at around 18:30 because we weren't sure if we would have enough stock left for the orders we had in!"
They have now pledged to donate their profits to help people and animals in Ukraine every Monday.
Sustainable cooperative and Odessa family cook up support for Ukraine
“We were so amazed by customers’ hearts”
"People are in need. It’s terrible, there’s not a lot of food left in the shops"
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