The bakery inside a Kharkiv church

Bake for Ukraine helped Pastor Dmytro to build a bakery in the basement of his North Saltivka church and I went along to see them in action.

It wasn’t the biggest space, an old store room beneath a Baptist church in Kharkiv’s North Saltivka district, which had been converted into a fully functioning bakery with the support of Bake for Ukraine. Crammed inside were six Church volunteers who were being taught baking skills by a highly professional looking woman called Anna, who worked at a local bread factory. There was me and an American friend, Genevieve Trainor, as well as Andrii who also volunteered at the church and was acting as our translator. To add to the mix, a local TV crew was wedged into the corner trying to film it all. Despite the slightly chaotic vibe, it really felt like a momentous thing to witness: I had been to visit Pastor Dmytro last year, when he first came up with the idea of putting a bakery in his church, and to see it become a reality was incredibly satisfying.

It had taken a lot of work to make it all happen. Bake for Ukraine managed to buy all the equipment half price from a small business in Odesa which had sadly closed down, and had it shipped by truck to Kharkiv. The church managed to find an electrician among the congregation who installed it all for free. Bake for Ukraine did some online baking training with the volunteers and sent some easy bread recipes, and Anna took up the challenge from there. 

If the room could have been powered by enthusiasm, it would have been turbo charged. The volunteers crowded excitedly around Anna’s table as she showed them how to shape dough into various kinds of buns and rolls. One lady seemed already pretty skilled, as she twirled hers into an intricately braided bun, sprinkled neatly with poppyseeds. I was wearing a less than flattering hairnet and disposable overall, and the TV crew tried to interview me just as someone turned on the large dough mixer which we were standing right next to. I couldn’t hear myself speak, so I was pretty sure their camera wasn’t picking anything up either. There was a lot of nodding and smiling.

Volunteers at work

Andrii told me that they were planning to bake twice a week to begin with, 50 loaves at a time plus some trays of buns, and they would scale it up as they became more confident with their baking skills. “All of the volunteers are members of the church, they all came forward when Pastor Dmytro asked for help”, he said. “Many of them have helped since day one of the full scale invasion - they’ve distributed medicine and hygiene products, they help to prepare hot meals, and distribute food aid - which is going on right now upstairs - as well as activities for children and displaced people.” Never a quiet moment at the Blahodat church. Pastor Dmytro poked his head through the door to see how it was all going and invited us to stay for lunch. We sat in the adjoining room with plates of simply cooked buckwheat and chicken, and as the bakery team came to join us, they carried over some trays of just-baked rolls, fragrant with the smell of toasted poppy and sesame seeds. Andrii tore into one straight away, helping himself to more buckwheat. “The bakery is a really good project, we like it a lot - the bread will go to local families, priority groups like widows and families of fallen soldiers”, he said. “Once we scale up, we will then be able to distribute it more widely. And of course, bread is such a special thing to give.”

Lunch at the church

He asked me if I could come back the following day, to help out at an English language class he was teaching to local children. “They have never heard a native English speaker before!”  The children, all aged about ten or eleven, had varying degrees of language skill but were all very keen, waving their hands in the air to answer various quiz questions and asking me all about my favourite food. Schools in Kharkiv have been unable to open since the full scale invasion, so having somewhere for children to learn and socialise together, even just for an hour, is so important.  Perhaps next time we can give them some baking lessons, too.