Bringing people together through food: Saskatoon Ukrainian restaurant plans fundraiser

It’s one of the oldest and most effective ways to bring people together: Inviting them to share homemade food and expressing yourself through your culture.

Saskatoon’s Touch of Ukraine restaurant is hoping to do that by holding a fundraiser for Ukraine in the next couple of weeks.

The owner, who’s known locally as Myron, has been running the restaurant since 1987. And although the restaurant’s dining room has become a pandemic casualty, he and his staff of four “babas” still cater and serve hundreds of handmade perogies, cabbage rolls and bowls of borscht two days a week.

“It takes years of practice,” said one of the women who make the perogies.

“I’ve been here 27 years,” added another.

The restaurant and kitchen smell of potatoes, onions, cabbage and dill. Myron — who didn’t want his last name used in the story — said he occasionally fills in to roll out the giant sheets of dough before they’re cut into small squares for the perogies.

“Prior to the pandemic we were probably doing 300 to 400 dozen (perogies) per week,” Myron said. “Now we’re doing 150 to 200 (dozen). As it picks up, we’ll be making more.”

(Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

In the kitchen, they talk about the various local fundraisers for Ukraine along with what they’re hearing in the community and seeing on TV.

“Some people are saying it’s not as bad as they’re showing,” said one of the women. “I said, ‘How can you say that?’ ”

“I think it’s worse than what they’re showing,” added Myron.

Everyone working in the kitchen is involved in at least one community fundraising event with local churches or other groups. That’s how Myron came up with the idea for his business to join in and help.

“(Ukrainians) are brave people. They’re hardworking people. They’re going to fight for their country because they’ve been under suppression for so many years,” he said. “I think they’ve just had it. They’re going to put their lives on the line.

“I think if we can help them from here with the humanitarian aid they need, then that’s all I can say is support them in any way you can.”

Myron’s father came to Canada from Ukraine in the late 1920s, leaving behind most of his immediate family — including two sisters — before the Second World War began. Decades later, Myron got to know one of his aunts when he visited western Ukraine, and then invited her to come to Canada for six months.

“She was always thanking God for everything,” he said. “She would always say, ‘Thank God.’ And I said, ‘How can you be so thankful after all you’ve endured in your life?’ And she said, ‘You brought me here to Canada for a visit. I never thought I’d ever dream of seeing my relatives. And now I’m visiting with them.’ And she was so excited about everything.”

To show support for Ukraine, Touch of Ukraine will be holding a takeout dinner fundraiser on March 25. If all goes well, there will be another on April 1. Myron said it will be a way of bringing the community together through food and Ukrainian culture.

“It’s comfort food,” he said. “It takes (people) back to their childhood remembering Baba’s kitchen at the farm and the gatherings at Baba’s and Dido’s home … when times were simpler and more peaceful than they are right now.”

Additional details on the fundraiser will be posted to Touch of Ukraine’s Facebook page in the coming days.