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Ukraine – How best to help?

11th March 2022

Ukraine How Best to Help?

The war in Ukraine is on everyone’s minds. We’re seeing terrible images on social media and our TVs and many of us are feeling powerless to help.

As volunteers for a charity, many of us have been asked our advice on how best to help and also whether the foodbank itself is helping at all. These are our suggestions.

1. Give money not stuff. Just as with the foodbank, targeting your donations to where they can best be of help is really important. However generous the intention, driving vans full of food, nappies and clothes to Poland where these things can a) be bought more cheaply, b) then require storage, sorting and then (hopefully) manage to reach the right person, takes way more volunteer time and money than the charities working on the ground can spare. The cost of the fuel alone could make a substantial donation to a charity already working with refugees.

This article in The Guardian outlines some of the best ways to help.

York Press join the call to give money not items in their article, here.

On a national level, you could donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, here.

The Churches Together in Wetherby website lists many ways to donate. Just scroll down to their ‘Ukraine Crisis’ feature.

There are also local collections that are sending money directly to communities supporting refugees in Poland, such as this one set up by two of our Foodbank volunteers.

2. Please don’t forget us. We, and some of the community projects we support, are already noticing a drop off in food donations. Come April, National Insurance contributions will increase and the Energy Price Cap will rise. Fuel prices are already rising to record levels. Importantly, as we are seeing the largest displacement of refugees in Europe since the Second World War, at some point the UK will be accepting refugees evacuating from the war in Ukraine. We need our shelves to be well-stocked in preparation for EVERYONE’S needs so please check our wish lists and keep popping donations into the baskets and cages at the supermarkets and keep collecting for us at work, school and church.

Thank you!

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