By Valentina D'Arrigo | Partnerships and Capacity Building Manager
At the outbreak of war, it was clear that FEBA needed to respond in a way that it had never done before; therefore, the campaign #AllTogether4Ukraine was launched to support Food Banks helping the people of Ukraine. In addition to all the displaced people in Ukraine, an initial mass exodus of refugees put massive pressure on the neighbouring countries.
FEBA targeted its first wave of interventions on supporting its Members in Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. FEBA called partners and supporters to donate food and economic resources to the benefit of local Members who were tirelessly assisting people. On the same page, the infrastructures of FEBA Members were insufficient to cope with this exceptional situation; hence, FEBA activated itself to reinforce the logistic of these organizations to let them focus on delivering food where it is most needed.
A first visit to Romania, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine was organised in April 2022 in order to assess the needs and the situation. At the same time, FEBA turned its attention to specific parts of Ukraine and appointed a dedicated Ukrainian Project Manager who had left the country with her small child. She has acted as an essential connection to her motherland. In addition, FEBA Members from across Europe (such as Estonia, France, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania) proudly sent food to Ukraine and neighbouring countries. In this framework, a special mention must go to Moldova, where food convoys were sent across to Odessa while facing a very uncertain future as Russia tried to close off the coastline. In this scenario, FEBA’s goal was to ensure the operational activities, reinforcing the logistics while providing food.
At the end of August 2022 FEBA organised a second visit to Ukraine (Kyiv and Lviv) in order to monitoring the situation and developing a plan of increased support beyond the harsh winter.
A twin-track approach was planned: supporting the Ukrainian Member by distributing food to where it is most needed and strengthening the Food Bank capacity.
In the meantime, FEBA assessed the needs of its network, focusing its attention on the countries who suffered most by the consequences of the war and released the report “Assessment of FEBA Members’ Activities” which describes the situation of FEBA Members in period July 2021 to June 2022. In particular, it focuses on the impact of external factors such as the Ukraine crisis, inflation growth, increase of food prices, food availability, and climate change.
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