Hospitality continues to support Ukraine with fundraisers, donations and boycotts - here's how you can help too
The staff Canteen wants to help spread the message of those in the industry who are doing amazing things to help Ukraine in these trying times
As the war in Ukraine claims more lives by the day, and government action taking longer than one might hope to help people, it can be hard to know what to do.
We want to highlight the positive initiatives that hospitality professionals are doing to help support the people of Ukraine, encouraging others to join them.
Fundraising Events
- On April 27th, as part of the Marylebone Food Festival, Marylebone Village hosted Ottolenghi Test Kitchen duo Noor Murad and Jake Norman to run a charity cook along to raise money for #cookforukraine. Tickets went on sale on Monday and cost £165 per person. The event, which was half supper-club and half class, ran from 10am - 12:30am for the 12 ticket holders.
- On April 5th over 1,000 hospitality professionals participated in the Lunch4Ukraine fundraising event which has currently raised £176,000 for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Ukraine Appeal. Chef Nigel Boschetti of JW Marriott Grosvenor House London - the location the lunch took place - and Richard Corrigan of Corrigan's Mayfair oversaw the event.
Along with the lunch, additional funds were raised by the launch of the Hospitality Auction4Ukraine, giving people the chance to bid for a number of hospitality experiences.
- Simon Boyle along, with guest chef Yurii Kovryzhenko from Ukraine, have set up the Feast for Relief fundraiser on April 9th. Tickets for this event are £65 per person or £500 for a table of ten with the money being donated to help feed those sheltering in Ukraine. Along with the six-course meal, there will also be guest speakers discussing their experiences leaving Ukraine.
- Bob Bob Ricard City, in London, which is owned and run by Russian-born Leonid Shutov hosted a fundraising dinner on Sunday 13th March in support of the Ukraine effort. At current the exact amount raised is not known.
In addition to this, £1 from every bill at Bob Bob Ricard Soho and Bob Bob Richard City will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross for the foreseeable future.
- Phil Howard, Rebecca Mascarenhas and their teams and hospitality colleagues, including Tomos Parry from Brat, raised £135,000 through their special fundraising dinners ‘Eat Out to Help Out Ukraine’ on March 14th at Elystan Street, Church Road, Kitchen W8, Home SW15 and Flour + Water. They were able to raise this amount thanks to support from Coutts Bank, which matched the funds raised £ for £. This was then donated to DEC’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
- Nieves Barragan of Sabor, Lisa Allen of Northcote, Tom Kerridge of the Kerridge group, Angela Hartnett OBE from Murano, Neil Borthwick of The French House, and Ed Wilson from Brawn joined together to create the event ‘Five for Ukraine’. The chefs joined forces to lay on a sumptuous five-course banquet at Barbourn, Shoreditch. The event raised £70,000 for critical food, water and medical assistance to refugees fleeing the crisis.
- NQ64, a late-night retro arcade bar, has raised over £6,000 for the Disasters Emergency Committee in its recent 'Game for Ukraine' charity drive that was held across all seven of the brand's venues. The charity event utilised the arcade games by giving the revenue from the sale of all the game tokens for the entire Sunday 20th March to the Ukraine appeal. In just one day the seven venues raised £6,397 for the DEC
Donations to Ukraine
- The Evening Standard and it's sister publication the Independant, with the help of stars and celebritities such as Angela Harnett, has so far rasied £40,000 through its Evening Standard Ukraine Appeal. This money will go towards the Disasters Emergency Committee's work in Urkaine.
- The Piano Works in Farringdon has called on operators to join The UK's Hospitality Ukraine appeal, requesting that operators offer diners the option to donate a discretionary £1 per person. The Piano Works will go one step further and will match their own guest’s donations with an equal £1 per cover. If every customer opts in, they state they could raise over £2,000 every week matching that to raise it to £4k per week.
- Los Mochis, a Mexican/Japanese restaurant in London, donated 100 per cent of its dinner service revenue on Monday 7th March to The Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal. Along with this, the restaurant has also said it will be boycotting Russian vodka and switching to Ukrainian brand Nemiroff to further show solidarity. This is similar to decisions made by the bar group Arc Inspirations.
- A number of other operators have committed to donating proceeds from sales of chicken Kyiv, named after Ukraine's capital city, to support aid efforts. These include Il Portico in Kensington, which has not only put the item back on the menu for the first time in 40 years but is also donating £5 from every order to the Red Cross in Ukraine.
- London-based cocktail bar and restaurant group Drake & Morgan will be donating £1 from every Kyiv dish sold to the British Red Cross’s Ukrainian Crisis Appeal.
- #CookforUkraine started as an idea between Ukrainian-born Olia Hercules and her long time friend Alissa Timoshkina, but they soon reached out to Clerkenwell Boy and soon the fundraiser and social media campaign were in motion. It aims to raise both money and awareness for Ukraine through a hashtag and a Just giving page. You can find out more here: @cookforukraine.
- British pub group Brewhouse & Kitchen has pledged to donate 100 per cent of the revenue gained from the first batch of its new seasonal cask beer, which launched on March 7th, to the British Red Crosses' Ukraine appeal.
- In a similar vein, Honest Burgers donated all proceeds from the estate-wide ‘Honesty Box’ initiative to Ukraine relief. Customers visiting on Tuesday, 15th March from 4pm saw every penny they spent donated to the #CookForUkraine initiative and UNICEF.
Removal of Russian Products
- A number of operators have stopped stocking Russian products. The Ivy has removed Russian caviar from its menu entirely and the restaurant Annabel has removed all Russian products from its fine dining restaurant.
- The drinks company, Diageo, has begun to wind down its Russian operation. Although it ceased shipping to and selling goods in Russia back in March, the company will retain a business requiring a small number of staff to remain. Fewer than 10 staff will remain once operations have winded down.
This comes along with many other companies speeding up their departure, in advance of a proposed law that would allow Moscow to seize their assets and impose criminal penalties on leaving. Along with this, in early March, leading western brewers in Russia; such as Carlsberg, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Heineken, suspended sales in the country and have since said they will sell their Russian business.
- Shepherd Neame has stopped exporting beer to Russia as it kickstarts Ukraine's fundraising appeal.
- Jamie Oliver is shutting down the branch of Jamie's Italian restaurant in Russia in response to Vladimir Putin's actions. A spokesman for Jamie Oliver said: “We are exiting our franchise agreement and our operations in Russia will cease trading.”
Along with that, the Telegraph reported that the “Jamie Oliver Group is scrapping an agreement with its franchisee partner Ginza Project, which has operated a Jamie’s Italian in the centre of Moscow for almost a decade. Ginza this weekend was ordered to strip out all Jamie’s Italian branding from the site and will also be required to shut down all branded social media. It must also close the Jamie Oliver cookery school in Moscow that has been open for just over six years.”
- Compass Group has completely withdrawn from Russia as well as moved away from all of its Russian suppliers. While the company only had a small impact in the country it did employ about 800 members of staff, mostly from the area around Moscow.
Along with this, the Compass Group has also made donations worth £250,000 to charities in Ukraine, despite the fact it has no operations in the country.
- On a larger scale, many multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks and McDonald's are suspending operations in Russia.
- Starbucks is set to pull out of Russia entirely after suspending operations in March. The Seattle-based coffee chain is now set to exit Russia closing its 130 stores permanently after nearly 15 years of operations. The company has stated it will no longer have a brand presence in the country.
Direct actions
- It was reported by Wales Online that wedding venue chef Dave Leeke has taken a two-month break from work in order to travel to the Ukraine-Poland border where he will help charities working on the border to transport both supplies and people in and out of Ukraine.
- Mildreds, a plant-based restaurant group has launched a 'careers for Ukraine' project where it will offer assistance to Ukrainians in securing employment in its six sites in London. This assistance will include up to £250 towards travel expenses in getting to the UK, up to £300 to help settle in the UK, free on-shift meals, and flexible working schedules.
- Prep A Manger has announced that they are setting up a Ukrainian Employment programme. The program is designed to help fast track Ukrainians who want to come to the UK and are seeking work. The new programme will offer support on everything from English tuition and assistance with housing to one-to-one counselling and vouchers to cover household items.
- A number of restaurants, including Wahaca, Franco Manca, The Cinnamon Collection, Pizza Pilgrims, Goodman, Zelman Meats, Beast Restaurant, Sumi, Neyba and Miguel’s Pizza, led by Burger & Lobster have come together to help Ukrainian refugees find jobs once they make it to the UK. The plan called Hospitality for All is designed to speed up and simplify the recruitment process. While a number of businesses have joined on board the plan is still in its earlier stages.
How you can help: Charities to Donate to / fundraise for
If you want to do your bit to help support the people of Ukraine, here are a few charities that you can donate to - or indeed, fundraise for.
- The DEC Ukraine Humanitarian appeal, after the conflict in Ukraine began the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) launched its Humanitarian appeal for Ukraine. Its main goal is to raise funds for food, water, medicine, protection and trauma care for people fleeing the war. The DEC is a collaboration of 15 other UK charities including, but not limited to, The British Red Cross and Save the Children.
This is especially good to donate to as, if you donate directly to the Main DEC Ukraine Appeal, then the government will match every pound donated up to £20 million. They are also working in partnership with the Post office allowing you to go to your local post office to donate.
- Unicef has also set up a fund to support the children affected by the conflict in Ukraine.
{{user.name}}