Lifeway’s Efforts to Help Ukraine

Lifeway's Efforts to Help Ukraine.

Lifeway's Efforts to Help Ukraine.

Letter from our CEO, Julie Smolyansky

Thank you for your interest in standing with Ukraine and for learning more about how Lifeway Foods is helping bring critical unmet needs to those directly impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Together we can make a difference.

Like most everyone around the world, we are devastated and horrified as we witness the events unfolding in Ukraine. I was born in Kyiv, and was granted asylum as a refugee in the U.S. when I was an infant in 1976. I know first-hand what it means to flee your home and I am grateful for refugee resettlement organizations like HIAS, which sponsored my family. New projections show that this cirsis could potentially lead to over 5 million new people seeking refuge.

Many of our Lifeway team members are refugees and immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, Ukraine, Russia and the surrounding regions. Many still have family and friends that live there and are directly impated. My heart breaks alongside yours. I cry with you, pray with you, and I stand with you. I know how painful, scary and traumatic this feels.

Please take care of yourselves, be gentle with yourselves, practice self-care, take breaks from the news and know that we are together in our fight towards building a healthier, safer world where children do not have to fear bombs pointed towards their home mothers do not have to deliver newborns in bomb shelters, and father do not have to say goodbye to loved ones fearing they will never see each other again. Now is the time when the entire world must find the guts to stand up and demand an end to this senseless violence and say, "Stop this war." May we only know peace.

With love and admiration,

Julie Smolyansky

President and CEO

Lifeway Foods

Lifeway supports these trusted organizations for donations

World Central Kitchen

WCK is working with restaurant partners across Ukraine and in six countries welcoming refugees, providing hundreds of thousands of nourishing meals for people in need every single day. We’re serving meals at shelters, hospitals, transit hubs, and more. Additionally, WCK teams are working to get bulk food product into communities under constant attack.

RAZOM

Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, is an organization with a singular mission: to build a more prosperous Ukraine. Razom was born out of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. Following the unprovoked, full- scale attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Razom quickly mobilized an Emergency Response Fund focused on saving lives. Your generous contribution has allowed us to provide critical medical and humanitarian aid, support vulnerable civilians, and amplify the voices of Ukrainians during this ongoing crisis.

Forwellbeing

We support Hyperlocal Medical Aid In Ukraine Our volunteers in US and Ukraine enable Mobile Medical Expeditions, Rehabilitation and PTSD programs including assistance to orphanages, maternity homes, expecting mothers, & children affected by the war in Ukraine. Medical Expeditions - Humanitarian and medical expeditions to regions of Ukraine affected by the war. Rehabilitation and PTSD - Physical and psychological rehabilitation including PTSD for children and adults. Children - Assistance to orphanages, maternity homes, expecting mothers, & children affected by the war in Ukraine.

RAZOM

Gate to Ukraine is a non-profit that enables direct money transfers to Ukrainian families in need within 24 hours. Each family goes through a rigorous vetting process to qualify for a $100 donation – enough to buy a month of groceries or three months of medicine. If you are looking to make a difference in the world, Gate.org is one of the most impactful ways to do so with little effort.

HIAS

HIAS is monitoring the situation in Ukraine and neighboring countries and is responding with emergency humanitarian assistance, helping Ukrainian refugees in several countries and internally displaced persons in Ukraine.

UkraineTrushChain

We fund 100% volunteer teams in Ukraine who make urgent deliveries, including medicine, first aid, baby formula, food, and hygienic products. Teams evacuate children and seniors from the front lines — often under fire — and provide basic needs to the volunteer defense forces: fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters protecting their homeland and loved ones from Russian troops.

Lifeway’s CEO Julie Smolyansky’s speech for Ukraine at Chicago Chefs Cook for Ukraine Event.

PARTNERS WHO ARE HELPING OUR EFFORTS