Iowa City native at Ukrainian border in Poland volunteering to feed refugees with World Central Kitchen

An Iowa City native is among those doing relief work on the Ukrainian border to assist refugees fleeing the country amid Russia’s invasion, serving up what he considers to be the “tastiest food on the border” to the thousands forced to leave their homes to seek safety.

Sean Kennedy, a project developer at Megawatt Photovoltaic Development and alum of City High School and the University of Iowa, is in Przemysl, Poland, through most of this week volunteering with World Central Kitchen, a not-for-profit organization that provides meals in the wake of natural disasters, including the 2020 Iowa derecho.

Kennedy said the organization is cooking and distributing between 10,000 and 20,000 hot meals a day to Ukrainians making the trek across the border at checkpoints in refugee camps and train stations around the area. He considers their cooking to be top-notch — one Ukrainian woman said the group’s borscht, a local beet soup, was the best she ever had.

World Central Kitchen cooks food that is already familiar to the people being served so they can have comfort food amid a crisis.

“We want them to get there, have something that warms their heart as well as their body,” Kennedy said.

Over the years, Kennedy has been to Ukraine 10 or so times. Soon after Russia President Vladimir Putin began the invasion, Kennedy said he “couldn't stand watching what's happening in Ukraine on television anymore” and decided he ought to go do something to help.

From his visits, he’s found Ukrainian people to be earnest, hardworking, fun and generous — willing to offer everything even when they have little.

“They believe in their country,” Kennedy said. “We've watched them fight now. They're absolutely resolute in who they are and what they want for a future, which is the better future that the European Union can give them.”

The World Central Kitchen volunteers greet people who are walking across the border and arrive hungry, maybe carrying one or two bags, Kennedy said. They’ve often had little more than cold sandwiches to eat for days. Most of the refugees are women and children, as men ages 18 through 60 can’t leave while Ukraine is under martial law.

“There are people that once they cross the border, they start crying,” Kennedy said. “You don't know if they're crying because of happiness, 'I made it,' or because they've left the country or because of exhaustion, or all the above. But the gratitude they show us in this circumstance is confounding, because we should have that gratitude for them — expressing our gratitude for the struggle they're going through on behalf of democracy.”

Much of World Central Kitchen’s work is being done by volunteers who have traveled to the border at their own expense, Kennedy said, and housing is scarce because of the influx of refugees, journalists and relief workers, so prices are skyrocketing.

To help, he launched a fundraiser to help cover the housing and travel costs, provide cash to refugees and give back to World Central Kitchen to support its work in Ukraine. He’s raised about $20,000 so far through an online fundraiser at https://gofund.me/c93a4404.

He advised those looking to help from the U.S. to send money rather than objects so it can be used for things the refugees need or for the organizations assisting them.

The Ukrainians will be in need of support for a long time, he said.

“Even if the war ended tomorrow, people’s homes have been destroyed,” Kennedy said. “People will be refugees one way or another for a long time.”

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