Pushing Forward the Help
It is often said that getting started is the hardest part. It requires perseverance and pushing through the initial struggles. And boy was the effort required to deliver our first 1000 food kits to rural areas monumental! In weight that is 25,000 kilograms of food.
But the payoff has been incredibly sweet! Despite numerous challenges Manifest Mira successfully delivered its first 1000 food kits within the Odesa region between July 1 to July 31, 2022. Even when all our cars broke down, fuel was impossible to find, and supplies of certain food items in large quantities was scarce, and rains made our parking lot an impassible lake; we came through for Ukrainian families.
All this while being in a country defending itself against a Russian invasion. Under constant threat of missile attack.
Odesa is also the largest region in all of Ukraine. The distances to cover are enormous. We hand delivered 317 of the kits to families with children.
Special Thank You
We want to say a special thank you to the dozens of volunteers that worked tirelessly to pack food kits. Without your hands it would not have been possible. Thank you also to the people of Savran who arranged for us to borrow a grain truck to complete our deliveries! When all our cars quit, we didn't!
Thank you to the Lumos Foundation for their financial support to make this all possible. As well as our other partners.
Care In The Details
Manifest Mira paid close attention to two important pieces of providing food aid:
- Creating food kits with Ukrainian produced foods
- Prioritizing food delivery to vulnerable families. Such as families who fled places such as Kherson who are displaced and now living in the Odesa region.
Our team is overwhelmingly Ukrainian. We are proud of our food culture and want to make sure the people we help eat the foods they are accustom to. As a team we selected the food to include in each food kit. The kits we built with the funding from Lumos also included hygiene items and stationary for school.
A highlight of the items included in each Food Kit were:
- 5 types of grains (ex: Gretchka, Rice, Oatmeal, etc)
- Canned Food (Fish and Pork)
- Sunflower oil
- Ketchup
- Honey
- Cashews and other nuts
- Hot chocolate
- Candies
- Throat lozenges
- Coloring book
- Coloring pencils
- And much more!
Locations Within the Odesa Region We Have Helped So Far:
In July 2021 we provided assistance in the Odesa oblast/region to residents of:
- Avangard
- Prylymanske
- Nova Dolyna
- Khlibodarske
- Radisne
- Gavinoske
- Savran
- Vilshanka
- Polyanetske
- Yosypivka
- Baibuzivka,
- Kapustyanka
- Hetmanivka
- Slyusareve
- Dubynove
- Topali
- Kontseba
- And many more!
The Tally As of Aug 31, 2022
2385 food kits were packed and delivered within the Odesa region between July 1 and August 31, 2022. And we are just getting warmed up....We are certain in a bright future and freedom together.