Head of Lviv OVA Maksym Kozytsky met with representatives of the Italian Social Cooperative Pausa Café. This cooperative implements the “Bread for Peace in Ukraine 2023” project.
The idea is to bake bread from Ukrainian flour in Italy, sell it, and invest the funds to purchase seeds, which, by the way, have already been received by agricultural producers of the Lviv region.
Lviv region started cooperation with the Italian cooperative last year. In April, the Lviv OVA and the Lviv Agrarian Chamber signed a Memorandum of Cooperation aimed at implementing humanitarian policy. At the same time, about 44 tons of wheat grain and 3.5 tons of rye flour were purchased in the region, which were exported to Italy. This grain was threshed at the local production in Alessandria. Part of it is used for baking bread, the other part is used for selling Ukrainian flour on the shelves of stores in Italy.
“We work with you about a year At the beginning of the full-scale war, we began to evacuate Ukrainians from Przemyśl, they were people with disabilities, children. All were sheltered at the bases in Turin, where they were provided with everything necessary. Then we began to care about food security in Ukraine – that’s how the idea of the “Bread for Peace” project came about. Our bread is baked on wood according to the old recipe, without the addition of yeast. You can find our products at the Novacoop network outlets in the Piedmont region,” said Marco Ferrero, president of the Pausa Café Social Cooperative.
Last October Lviv region farmers received humanitarian aid in the form of seeds. About 28 tons of winter wheat seeds and 2.5 tons of grass mixture seeds were transferred to 72 small farms and family farms.
“Project “Bread for Peace in Ukraine” helped strengthen the production potential of Ukrainian farmers in the Lviv region and ensure food security for the local population and forcibly displaced persons. You can support Ukraine in any way, the main thing is to take care of people. This is the kind of concern and solidarity with Ukrainians shown by every Italian who at least once bought bread made from Ukrainian flour, or decided to bake their own pastries from Ukrainian flour. From each sold product, 30 euro cents are intended for the supply of seeds to small Ukrainian farmers,” Maksym Kozytsky emphasized.
Cooperation with The Pausa Café social cooperative within the project continues. In February 2023, the Lviv Agrarian Chamber began purchasing food products produced by family and small farms in the Lviv region. These are jams, juice, apples, honey, cookies, hard cheese, chicken eggs, meat and sausage products. They will be transferred as humanitarian aid to shelters where internally displaced persons temporarily live.
Planned budget for the purchase of products is more than 200,000 euros. In this way, the project provides support to local agricultural producers who, due to the full-scale war, cannot fully sell their products. The project also provides high-quality food to displaced people.
The first distribution of products will take place tomorrow, March 22, in a shelter at the Evangelical Christian-Baptist Church “Disciples of Jesus Christ”, where about 50 IDPs live.
