PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The effort to support Ukrainian refugees continues for Portsmouth-based Mercy Chefs. For months, the organization has answered the call to help Ukrainian refugees.
“We thought we’d be doing traditional Mercy Chefs work, feeding hot meals to refugees,” said Gary LeBlanc, the founder of the organization.
LeBlanc said many people needed groceries and other essentials to get by. So, volunteers set up a station to respond.
“We leased a warehouse, we built a trucking company and to date, we moved over 2.7 million pounds of groceries to the frontlines," he said.
Organization leaders said volunteers are serving those crossing the border to Romania and those running out of supplies in Ukraine.
Each week, volunteers deliver about 100,000 pounds of food to more than 30 locations. Though, it all comes at a high cost.
“We’ve had product availability issues," he said. "We’ve seen prices of some of the things we find double since we’ve been in Ukraine.”
The continuing challenge is encouraging teams to extend their service in what’s set to be the second-longest response for the group.
"We were in Panama City, Florida for two and a half years after Hurricane Michael," he said. "We stayed with the Beacon of Hope and continued to be a part of that community during the rebuilding. We would expect that Ukraine will take that same sort of commitment from Mercy Chefs."
LeBlanc said when the war ends, the group will shift its focus to rebuilding communities in Ukraine.
“We have our designs and contractors and equipment partners in place to do that in a moment’s notice,” LeBlanc said.
Right now, the focus is moving food to the eastern part of Ukraine. It’s what they plan to continue throughout the end of the year.
LeBlanc said the organization is planning to build a mobile kitchen if the war continues into 2023.