What Started With 10 Boxes of Food

Food banks distribute food aid to thousands of people every week in Estonia, including 8000 children.

The number of people needing help has increased due to rising cost of living, increased prices in energy and food inflation. Estimates show 67,000 Ukraine refugees live in Estonia, which is 5% of the Estonian population.

We met with Piet from Toidupank to discuss ways humanitarian funds may assist in his food distribution efforts.

What started as ten food boxes in a small one-room office in 2004 has grown into sixteen food bank branches throughout the country. Over 20,000 people a week line up to receive food five days a week.

This organization collects and distributes food to thousands of people every day. The busy warehouse has up to twenty-five volunteers who come every week to sort and fill plastic bags. Vehicles arrive with pallets of salvaged food which is left over in grocery stores at the end of the day. Warehouse workers move pallets around to replenish outgoing food. Cooks prepare and serve hot meals in the small kitchen area. Piet is busy coordinating fund raising events and purchasing supplemental food items like buckwheat, sunflower oil, and canned fish.  

Everyone is feeling the squeeze; we observed long lines of people standing in subzero weather waiting to collect a food bag. There were young and old, men and women, a variety of people. We were advised many people are too sick or elderly to stand in line and the food bank works with social services to deliver meals to those who are home bound.

Last year, when the war was raging and it was a real threat to enter Ukraine, Piet heard Kiev was desperate for food. He turned to his friends for help and against all resistance he loaded pallets of food into seven trucks. They said it couldn’t be done that there is too much paperwork or the trucks would be high-jacked and the food stolen before it arrived. Regardless, all the trucks made it to Kiev and delivered the food. He has gained much respect in the food community because of his bravery and kindness.

We look forward to developing a humanitarian project with this organization.

Humanitarian Projects for the Month of January in Europe North Area.

In our role as Humanitarian Specialist we reviewed twelve (12) projects for the Europe North Area. After we research details we prepare a PowerPoint, and then submit them forward to be approved.

Once approved, all projects must be followed with a Letter of Donation and a plan for accomplishing the objectives. Here is a summary of projects approved in January 2023:

1. Repair and paint supplies for remote primitive primary school to sustain education in mountainous village. Labor to be donated by volunteers.

2. Laptops and overhead projectors for continuing education courses inside the Central Prison. The objective is to help educate prisoners.

3. Dirt floor shacks provided with a rechargeable solar light kit allowing students to read after dark for their education. No electricity is available.

4. Braille printer, eyeglasses and digital projector for blind and low vision students. This will improve their ability to communicate and learn.

5. Hygiene kits for 1300 inmates in a severely crowded prison. These items are not provided by prison.  

6. Waterproof mattresses to replace germ-infested, soiled, and broken mattress for disabled bed-ridden adults. They are very poor and live in shacks.

7. Replacement commercial oven in social center to prepare hot meals and teach culinary skills for employment. Many refugees are fed inside center.

8. Winter clothes for 1000 male Asylum Seekers living in temporary housing. Most fled with just the clothes on their back and enduring winter weather.

9. Food commodities for asylum seekers with young children who are in appeals process with citizenship.

10. School uniforms and shoes for 70 primary and secondary students who are refugees, allowing them to feel included with other uniformed students.

11. Laptops for an Information Technology Skills Career Development program for underprivileged youth. This allows them to learn technology and communication.

12. Emergency food for 88 people, who fled Gambia by boat, ran out of gas, rescued and brought to land. They have nothing to sustain them as they fled violence. Most were suffering from dehydration and hunger.

 

See What We Are Up To

Humanitarian work in the Europe North Area has been steady this year. Senior humanitarian missionaries, oversee projects and humanitarian aid for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Senior couples stationed in Cape Verde and Great Britain coordinates and manage projects in their respective countries. Every project has written objectives, measures, background information, current situation, project proposal, and proposed budget. Notification is sent to us when a project is ready for approval. A one-page PowerPoint slide is created per project. This PowerPoint is critiqued by many approval layers before the Area Presidency council committee reviews it for final approval. The PowerPoint needs to be clear, concise and to the point.

During the first week of February, we have been busy. Every day we are engaged in computer work. Last week, six new projects were ready for approval from United Kingdom, Cabo Verde, and Finland. Our day is filled with humanitarian focus asking and responding to inquiries about projects and promptly creating PowerPoint presentations. Sometimes this process takes days before satisfactory results and clarifying details are included in the write up statement.

Since the beginning of the year, 17 projects have been submitted for approval. Projects in the United Kingdom are driven by local church leadership and managed by, the Bonnys, who are the volunteer couple living in London. However, projects from Cabo Verde, an island nation of 10 inhabited islands, are driven by the Haynies, humanitarian missionaries. Who are entering several projects every week.

In December 2022, the Brocks left Cabo Verde early due to a family emergency. However, they choose to continue developing projects and project management remotely from Atlanta, Georgia. (Thank goodness for technology and video conferencing). In fact, they submitted a project for approval just a few weeks ago. Their replacement, the Robertsons, are in the MTC training program this week. And if all goes well with their resident visas they could potentially be in Cabo Verde this weekend.

Well, I am happy to share that I love living in Riga and exploring new experiences every day. This Welfare and Humanitarian assignment is rewarding and fulfilling. I am happy to be here doing this great work. Anxiously engaged is what I strive to do throughout the remainder of my life and there is no better way, in my mind, than to be a volunteer for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A Dream For Helsinki

In a recent visit to Finland, we met with the Helsinki Stake to discuss and develop a humanitarian project that involves a local food bank. 

The food bank has operated over 30 years serving the underprivileged and needy population in the greater Helsinki area. Their main source of food comes from supermarkets and are called “clearance products” or “loss food”. The organization is 100% non profit, and is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Parish of Finland which provides a modest operational budget. The City of Helsinki also provides funds for the service they operate. But the funding is not enough to purchase needed food items like meats, fish, cheese, and eggs. 

The food bank hands out free food three days a week, with 1000-1500 participants' occurrence. During our visit, we observed a very long line of orderly persons extending through the parking lot, up a ramp and down the street. The recipients carry their own bags and are filled with food like fruit, bread, frozen premade meals, bakery items, boxed or canned goods, etc. 

The need for food has been constant and growing in Helsinki. Recent high inflation costs affect more low income people, which include families, pensioners and students. A large percent of whom are non-natives, and 80% students in the area do not speak Finnish as their mother tongue. Many beneficiaries are refugees or suffer disabilities. No one is questioned or turned away. They simply open their bag and food is given.

The food bank originated in the basement of the Lutheran Church, and has expanded to a larger space. It operates under the direction of the Lutheran Parish and a Board of Directors. Helsinki's population is about 75% Lutheran affiliated and the church has not been open or inviting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

Local members of the Helsinki Stake, organized, collected and donated food items to this food bank which started a warm friendship. This humanitarian project will help relieve the needs of the hungry, and also improve relations between two religions. The 76 year-old operations manager has been involved over 20 years. Every day she shows up for work and runs a tight ship, where volunteers and employees highly respect her.   

The Helsinki Stake is dedicated to helping this food bank in long-term ways. To bring in local dependable volunteers weekly, collect food items for donation, and assist finding new food sources in the area. The stake president dreamt about being involved locally in "small and simple ways", and now calls it "A Dream for Helsinki."

This is a good example the way the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Europe North Area wants local leadership to get involved with humanitarian relief work. Opportunities where stakes use their resources and intelligence to rally together, brainstorm, give opinions, formulate an idea, make a plan and execute. From small and simple means, dreams do come true.