The mobile bakery’s new home

Bake for Ukraine’s mobile bakery has a fantastic new home at the DOF centre volunteer hub in Mykolaiv - I went to visit them last month

The other night Odesa came under a violent Russian attack yet again, drones slamming into apartment blocks, the train station, a popular beach front area with a children’s Dolphinarium, a row of houses and private cars. Our Bake for Ukraine volunteer Olya, who is a key member of our team, lives in one of the streets that was hit - her windows are gone and she was left with this view from what remains of her home.

Bake for Ukraine has launched a fundraiser to help her repair it all - we are thankful that she is unhurt but this really is no way to live, to spend every night under this terror. Olya is one of the best people I have ever met, she is always breaking into a wide smile, and has an incredible command of logistics and business organisation.

Olya has been centrally involved in the work of our first mobile bakery in Mykolaiv - traveling there frequently to support the volunteers who bake bread on board and deliver it to the villages where it is needed most. She has spent many years working with some of Odesa’s leading restaurants and has a wide and impressive knowledge of the culinary scene.

Earlier this year, after frequent visits to Mykolaiv, she helped to find a wonderful new venue to house the mobile bakery - at the fantastic DOF centre volunteer hub.

We managed to train a number of volunteers to bake sourdough on board with the help of two of our baker friends - Alexandre from east London and Willem from the Netherlands - who both came to spend a week each in Mykolaiv, spending every day with volunteers so that they were able to continue operating the mobile bakery on a daily basis. They also traveled with the deliveries, to badly damaged villages in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, where people are living with little infrastructure and no other access to fresh bread.

We have been helped by a generous grant from the US-based International Relief Teams, which has enabled Bake for Ukraine to make and deliver hundreds of loaves of Ukrainian sourdough to these villages every week - direct from the new site at the DOF centre.

I went to visit them a few weeks ago, taking a 17 hour train from Lviv to Mykolaiv. The train was the regular overnight service to Kherson, and was adorned with paintings on the side. One carriage proclaimed ‘Victory train’, while another was decked out with crowds of people waving Ukrainian flags - then one with the hashtag ‘Russia is a terrorist state’, in English and Ukrainian.

The day before, Kherson train station had come under Russian fire, damaging the station building and part of the train. Fortunately the passengers and crew had been able to get to the shelter just in time, and with typical determination, Ukrainian Railways had managed to get services back on schedule. So here was the train, less than 24 hours later, setting off for the very same station - the quiet courage of the staff was quite overwhelming.

Mykolaiv at dawn was chilly and wet from spring rain when we arrived, and we found a cafe with excellent breakfast food before heading over to DOF to meet the team. The volunteers had taken up residence in a building called the House of Officers of the Fleet - which had fallen into disrepair. We met up with musician and volunteer Volodymyr Alekseev, who showed us around. They had managed to clear much of the space and clean it up, creating room for a kitchen area, plenty of storage for essential supplies, and room in the basement for music and art classes, talks and an exhibition space.

He explained that the DOF had become a place which had brought together Mykolaiv residents during the most difficult times of the full-scale war - and who had helped to prevent the Russians from taking the city and advancing further into Ukrainian territory. They had collected money for protective equipment for defenders, as well as clothing and household goods for people who had fled occupation or whose homes had been destroyed - and were starting again with nothing. And now they were providing not just a home for the mobile bakery - but the people who would keep it running.

The day we arrived, a Saturday, was delivery day - and the volunteers had already set off to some villages with a van load of bread, freshly baked the day before. Volodymyr said their aim was always to visit places which were hard to reach, where other aid groups never managed to go. The atrocious roads, often through areas still polluted by mines, took an obvious toll on their vehicles, and he said they would inevitably be fundraising again by the autumn for a new car.

The mobile bakery had been kept sparkling clean, with a tarpaulin rigged up outside connecting it to a portacabin, where the bread could be stored on racks while it cooled down. Volodymyr had saved a couple of loaves for us to try, one rye and one white sourdough: they were crusty and delicious, the crumb still perfectly fresh and moist. We also met another long time volunteer at the centre, Artem, who makes his own bean to bar chocolate and handed me a couple of bars made with lavender - which I thankfully managed to get home in one piece.

Downstairs, in the safer basement level, there was a corridor filled with photographs by youngsters who’d taken classes led by Artem - they were moving, powerful, lyrical portraits of a childhood stolen by war. There were chairs laid out in the main area, where the team have been able to stage small concerts and plays - including a performance about life in Mykolaiv for an audience including people displaced from Kherson.

I messaged Olya to check that she had somewhere to stay while her home was being repaired and she responded straight away with her spirit and generosity undimmed by what had happened: “sending a big hug to you!”

I am lucky to know such incredible people.

You can donate to help Olya repair her home here

https://tinyurl.com/4wvzv5v6