When Yair Flicker first heard the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine while skiing in Utah last month, he knew he had to do something.
Flicker, the president of Baltimore software firm SmartLogic, began volunteering with the nonprofit World Central Kitchen in Ukraine in late March. Over the past few weeks, he has been focused on feeding those in need after Russia’s violent invasion that began last month, making sandwiches in Poland and distributing them to restaurants across Ukraine.
“I watched with horror, as we all did, when Putin decided to invade Ukraine,” Flicker said. “I really wanted to do something."
Flicker worked alongside other volunteers from across Europe and the U.S. on the day-to-day prep cook work necessary to feed refugees crossing over the border in Poland.
“In Poland, I was making salami and cheese sandwiches, peeling bananas and slicing apples,” Flicker said. “We were in a kitchen in a warehouse that was churning out close to 5,000 sandwiches a day.”
Flicker's company, SmartLogic helped build the World Central Kitchen direct application, providing a text-to-order platform to distribute meals to people in need during the Covid-19 pandemic. World Central Kitchen, founded by Washington, D.C., Chef Jose Andres, helps provide meals to people in the wake of humanitarian crises. Though SmartLogic's application is not part of WCK's efforts in Ukraine, the work SmartLogic does with WCK gave Flicker a strong familiarity with the nonprofit's work.
After arriving in Ukraine in early April, Flicker helped the WCK administrators work with restaurants, spending time in Lviv and the port city of Odesa. Flicker helped WCK gather information on Odesa's needs, including discovering where people in need lived in the city and what the local restaurants required to be successful. In Odesa, Flicker met with the deputy mayor, and many of the restaurants WCK works with to provide people with meals.
"I hung around with two volunteers who were driving meals to these elderly ladies who live in these high-rise apartment buildings on the outskirts of Odesa," Flicker said. "These people can barely move, but the volunteers were shuttling the food up the apartment building and these people were so happy to see other people."
Throughout his time in Ukraine, families who have been split up by the war have been a constant presence. One person with the mayor's office in Odesa, who drove Flicker to around 10 of the kitchens around the city, sent his wife and children to Portugal since it's the farthest place from Ukraine and Russia as possible in Europe. Most men aged 16 to 60 are legally required to stay in the country, since they may be needed to fight in the war. Many men in Ukraine, Flicker said, have gotten their wives and children out of the country.
“You see people at the border with a backpack and a carry-on luggage suitcase, and that’s all they have,” Flicker said.
Flicker returned to Poland on April 10, and plans to leave Europe on April 13.
“I am eternally grateful for what we have in the U.S.,” Flicker said, when asked about the lessons he will take with him back to Baltimore. “Situations like this always ground me.”
