Nutritional Programmes in Serbia, Ukraine and Belarus

The poverty faced by families and the elderly in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union can lead them to resort to skipping meals, as they struggle to cover basic food expenses.

WJR supports programmes that relieve this burden by providing nutritional support in the form of food vouchers, canteen and meals-on-wheels programmes and soup kitchens in Serbia, Ukraine and Belarus.

·         160 families in Serbia, mostly families with unemployed parents or pensioners struggling to survive on pensions too low to meet their most basic needs, receive support in the form of food vouchers. The vouchers can be exchanged at local supermarkets for basic food items.  By providing assistance in the form of vouchers recipients are free to buy food depending on their individual nutritional requirements and maintain a level of personal choice

·         200 elderly and disabled people receive one meal, once a week all year round at a canteen in Kharkov, Ukraine and 10 home-bound individuals unable to travel to the Kharkov canteen receive a lunchtime meal by home delivery 5-days-a week

·         120 disadvantaged children from the Beis Aharon Orphanage and Boarding School, over 70% either orphans or from single-parent homes, and 30 older people, receive three meals a day, all year round in Pinsk, Belarus

·         115 elderly receive a three-course hot meal six days a week, all year round in a Kiev canteen. All recipients are over 65 with most over 85 and many have difficulties with mobility.

·         Thousands of elderly people receive food cards, food packages, meals-on-wheels, and access community cafeterias and free hot lunches through our programme Meeting Immediate Needs of Older People Ukraine