Ukrainian women first to take, pass free food safety course

After fleeing Ukraine and arriving in Saskatoon in May, Liubov Okun has taken a big step towards getting a steady job to support herself and her nine-year-old son.

Thanks to the compassion of Saskatchewan man Russell Scott, Okun recently took her FoodSafe course free of charge — and passed her test with a 96 per cent — certifying her to handle food professionally outside her home.

Scott has taught more than 550 courses — 90 or so over the course of the pandemic — since being certified as a food inspector in 1986. It’s an eight-hour course that he says gives people a leg up on the competition when entering the food industry.

For Okun, having the certification means she has the opportunity to find meaningful work in an area she’s passionate about — food.

“Oh, cooking is very important,” she said with a chuckle. “I am not a cooker but I have very great experience with cooking.

“It’s part of our life, how to cook our borscht or perogies.”

Okun said she lived about 40 kilometres from the border when in Ukraine, in the Suma region. She said areas near her home are being bombed and shelled heavily, as close as 10 kilometres from where her parents still live.

She fled Ukraine with her son to escape the war.

“It gives any Ukrainian person the opportunity to live,” she said about receiving her safe food handling certification. “This is the most important and valuable thing.”

Despite having worked as a teacher in Ukraine, Okun is excited to take on a new but familiar working challenge.

“I hope that I will find the job because jobs give opportunity for living. Right now, I am looking for (a) job and I hope that this certificate will open me more doors and I believe that this certificate gives me more opportunities for that,” Okun shared.

Nataliia Maksymchuk is hoping to move back to Ukraine one day, but is excited to also be preparing to look for work in Saskatoon.

Maksymchuk took the FoodSafe course alongside Okun. Both women raved about Scott’s entertaining and engaging teaching during the course — like using two chicken props named Sam and Ella to teach about the dangers of salmonella, or a custom Saskatchewan Roughriders jersey to illustrate the temperatures bacteria grows on food (between four and 60 degrees).

Having read the course workbook cover to cover about three times before the test, Maksymchuk earned a perfect score on the final test for the FoodSafe course and wrote the test in English.

“Now I can have a job opportunity and a job that requires handling food outside of the home and I can have a better chance at employment and stability,” she shared, proudly holding her certificate.

“I know employers will be really interested in a person like you and your skills and your attitude,” Scott told Maksymchuk when he presented her with her certificate Tuesday.