Vegan Restaurant in Ukraine Is Offering Free Meals To Hundreds of Refugees Every Day

A vegan restaurant in western Ukraine called Vega Room, found itself forced to shut before the war escalated in February because most the staff started to leave.

26-year-old Vitaly Savchuk, the founder of Vega Room, said in an interview to a publication “When the war started we lost our workers because some of them went to Poland. We had a waitress, and she went to Poland…they were scared of the war and so we didn’t have any choice. We decided to close it.”

THE REOPENING

To escape the bombing, many people are fleeing into other cities of Ukraine and Lviv is one of those experiencing an influx of people.

Vitaly says he was approached by an organisation called Vegan Ukraine which was being run by two sisters who used to frequent his restaurant. Vegan Ukraine organised the funding and convinced Vitaly to convert his restaurant to a vegan kitchen to provide meals for refugees.

“Most volunteer organizations do not cook individual meals for vegans. And, unfortunately, vegan refugees can only eat a cereal bar and tea from the food provided,” mentions Vitaly in an online appeal.

With the help of volunteers and donations Vega Room is now able to feed anyone who shows up at their door. They do not ask for passports for identification, everyone is welcome. The meals are simple hot stews or cereal based meals made with buckwheat, rice, falafels or tofu. Vitaly mentions that people are satisfied with what is being served. Vega Room used to easily attract 30 to 40 people every day. But now they serve more than 200 hot meals to hungry people for free.

The restaurant is struggling to source raw materials for food since their suppliers are unable to get anything themselves. They recently put out an appeal for food supplies for the restaurant on their Instagram page.

Image Courtesy- Vega Room Facebook Page

THE FUTURE

Vitaly hopes to reopen his doors soon to new and old customers when peace prevails. Vega Room’s rent has also been suspended by the Lviv authorities who are expecting the city to be targeted soon.

For now, he plans to keep the restaurant open to feed as many people as he can rather than having them pay taxes on a shut-down place.

To donate vegan food supplies to Vegan Ukraine and to keep the Vega Room kitchen running, click here.

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