RALEIGH, N.C. — Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine began in February, more than five million refugees have fled the country, according to the United Nations.
Rise Against Hunger is a nonprofit organization in Raleigh
Since February 24, more than five million refugees have fled Ukraine
Rise Against Hunger shipped more than 800,000 meals to Ukraine refugees in 2015
Refugees often have little warning to leave their homes, often fleeing with nothing but the clothes on their back. That’s where a Raleigh-based nonprofit organization, Rise Against Hunger, steps in, sending aid for Ukrainian children and families.
Rise Against Hunger was founded in the Triangle in 1998. Its mission is to end world hunger, through its emergency preparedness kits and meal-packaging. It has expanded to include a network of global partners across the world, including in Europe, where its team is helping refugees in Poland, Romania, Moldova, Odessa and into southern Ukraine.
“Whether that’s man-made emergencies, or natural disasters, we have to work together,” said Andrew Sullivan, the director of program management with Rise Against Hunger.
He started working with the organization in 2008 by packaging meal kits that get shipped across the world to people in crisis.
“In college having the opportunity to travel extensively into India and rural south India, seeing first-hand the challenges of hunger and poverty,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan played a role in expanding Rise Against Hunger's efforts to provide meal kits internationally and locally.
Crisis situations like the war in Ukraine is where the nonprofit steps in. It has volunteers and a team on the ground from its international location in Italy, that is pairing refugees with host families and supplying them with emergency food kits when they arrive at reception centers in neighboring countries.
“We are responding to refugees in Romania, Poland, Moldova, Odessa and into Southern Ukraine and the list continues to grow throughout Europe, and refugees continue to go into more countries. We are working directly with our partners to see where that need is and how we can respond directly to that need,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan says the meal kits include breakfast, lunch, dinner and nonperishable food items.
This is not the first time Rise Against Hunger has responded to crisis in Ukraine.
“The conflict in Ukraine that was happening in 2015. and the refugees that were there. In total we shipped over 800,000 meals to support over 2,900 refugees at that time,” Sullivan said.
Rise Against Hunger is in need of volunteers and donations to continue expanding its efforts in Ukraine. To help, click here.