The Lviv Agrarian Chamber, within the framework of the Institutional Nutrition Program, cooperates with institutions that take care of socially vulnerable categories of the population, with different numbers of wards from 10 people to 1000 and more.
However, the Program priorities will be reviewed in April this year. In particular, it is planned to focus more attention on the involvement of small institutions that do not have significant budgetary support in the Program. It is assumed that these will be shelters for IDPs, family-type children’s homes, geriatric and psychoneurological boarding houses, orphanages, hospices, centers providing services for supported living.
Therefore, institutions financed by budget funds and serving a large number of people (more than 300) in need of assistance, such as city and district hospitals, educational institutions, will most likely not have the opportunity to receive humanitarian aid in the future.
However, in the first quarter of this year, all institutions will still receive food as planned. Monitoring and protection officer Davyd Kravchenko, who visited several institutions in the Sheptytskyi district on February 21, found out whether the diet of those in need will change significantly after the completion of deliveries within the framework of the Institutional Nutrition Program.
KNP “Sokal District Hospital” receives up to 430 patients monthly. “For us, of course, the termination of the supply of products from the World Food Program of the United Nations will be very noticeable, because thanks to the participation in the Program, the hospital has significantly increased the proportion of fresh vegetables and dietary meat in the diet of patients. We will simply be forced to return to the ration of 2023 provided for in our budget. It’s a pity that such a wonderful program is coming to an end for us,” commented Halyna Lanyo, the hospital’s chef.
Sokal Academic Lyceum is also a member of the Institutional Nutrition Program. 190 children study here, 30 of them are IDPs. The director of the lyceum, Tetiana Polozyak, said that the lyceum has a good budget, and participation in the Program is an additional bonus for improving children’s nutrition.
“We have a 5-time balanced diet for children, and the supply of products from the UN World Food Program allows us to improve the wards’ diet with fresh fruit throughout the year, which is extremely necessary for the children’s bodies,” – emphasizes Tatyana Polozak.
PE “OLK “Rovesnyk” of SE “Lvivvugilya”, which provides shelter to 190 internally displaced persons in the village of Komariv. “Rovesnyk” already on the first night of the war sheltered 135 people – ethnic Tatars from the Kyiv region, mostly women and children. In the following months, people came from Kyiv, Irpin, Buch, Boyarka, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Energodar, Chernihiv, Donetsk region, said director Anna Geryak. There are families who have lived there for almost 3 years, and there are families who arrived this winter. People receive free accommodation and food. Living conditions are very comfortable, the territory is picturesque, there is a park area and a lake. In the boarding house, they say that funds for the maintenance of IDPs are allocated by the state-owned enterprise “Lvivvugilya”, however, large expenses for communal services significantly limit the cost of food. Therefore, the humanitarian aid provided by the Lviv Agrarian Chamber provides almost half of the residents’ food needs.
“We really hope for this support. We have a bakery and the flour we receive allows us to cover most of the costs for bread, because we bake it ourselves. For our residents, such help is simply invaluable, because the sanatorium alone is not able to provide full nutrition, so people will be forced to use their own funds, which they have little. We are very grateful for the assistance provided to the UN World Food Program and the Lviv Agrarian Chamber and we have great hope that we will continue to be participants in this wonderful Program,” Anna Heryak stressed.
120 people are cared for by the ENT ENT Center “Leshkiv Psychoneurological Boarding School”. 17 internally displaced persons also live here. The boarding school is located in a remote place, access is difficult. “Our location does not favor the visit of benefactors at all,” says director Olga Hortashko. Last year, we did not receive any assistance, except for supplies under the Institutional Nutrition Program. Of course, we have budget food, but, you know, with what appetite our wards eat dumplings. Either pancakes or pies. And we can make them, because there is enough flour. The program is wonderful and we are very grateful to be taking part in it,” adds Olga Hortashko.
The palliative department “Hospice” of the Belz district hospital of the KNP “Sokalska RL” is the smallest of the institutions, accordingly, their needs are small. 30 seriously ill people, mostly the elderly, are cared for here.
The cook of the department, Olga Sanotska, said that there is a certain specificity in the nutrition of their patients. It is especially important that the products are of high quality, fortified and meet the needs of their patients. These are the products that the Lviv Agrarian Chamber supplies as part of the Institutional Nutrition Program.
