A big thank you to our supporters this year

We are truly grateful to everyone who has subscribed and donated to help the work of Bake for Ukraine - it’s enabled us to keep supporting our wonderful bakeries across Ukraine!

I write this on a day after Russia has rounded out the year by launching the biggest air attack on Ukraine since the full scale war began: it made me remember this day a year ago, when a missile slammed into the street next to where my friends in Kyiv live, smashing the facade of a hotel. They said the walls of their apartment shook but luckily nothing broke, adding that it had cast a bit of a cloud over any plans to celebrate the new year. But as ever on this site I want to focus on the people doing good despite living through the horrors of war - including my Kyiv friends who unfailingly offer me their sofa to stay on, share their mum's delicious jams and pickles with me, plan new places for me to buy coffee and try in vain to persuade me to take up yoga again. And wonderful friends in Odesa who host me and get me out of all sorts of situations!

For those of you who've been supporting with paid subscriptions - a huge thank you. I've handed over several thousand pounds to Bake for Ukraine so far, which has been a huge help in getting the final repairs done to the mobile bakery - which can hopefully start traveling soon to the de-occupied territories where we want to bring free bread. We have a very kind offer of a lorry and driver to tow it - and offers from some volunteer bakers willing to travel on board. I will be moving to Ukraine for a few months early next year and I very much plan to be on that first journey - so watch this space for updates.

Huge thanks to some incredible donors and supporters - Giles Duley at the Legacy of War Foundation, Mark Neville at Postcode Ukraine, WeAid in Berlin, Vans Without Borders for logistics, Brotwerk, Today Bread, Jolene, Daisy Green Collection, Brook Foods and Gail’s Bakery for donating supplies.

Photo from Oleksander Baron

The wonderful team of Ukrainians who run Bake for Ukraine have been hard at work in Berlin - where they managed to establish a special relationship with the German Bundestag after organising a Ukrainian bread making workshop with a number of MPs. Earlier in December the Bundestag canteen served Ukrainian Palyanytsya bread in the canteen, and MPs and parliamentary staff could buy loaves to take home, for a donation. They've also held a fundraiser to provide free cookies to Ukrainian children in January, made by our bakery friends in Odesa.

We are looking for ways to find more sustainable funding into 2024 so that we can keep on supporting the amazing bakeries across Ukraine which we've been helping with regular donations - from Odesa to Kherson, Bucha, Kyiv and Kharkiv - I've had the privilege of meeting most of them and they really do incredible work, between them making millions of free loaves over the last year for people in need and in frontline communities. But all that takes resources, from equipment to fuel, ingredients and building rent - and we want more than anything to do our part to keep them going. I will be sharing more of their stories soon, and giving another shout out for our friend Pastor Dmytro in Kharkiv who I wrote about last week, who is determined that a bakery inside his church can be up and running soon.

So a very difficult 2023 for Ukraine - a lot of loss, a lot of heartbreak - and a huge amount of bravery... let's keep up the support and the solidarity and help make sure 2024 is finally the year of victory.

Huge thanks to LBWS

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