PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — This weekend marks two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Four days after the war started, Portsmouth-based non-profit, Mercy Chefs, traveled to Ukraine to begin feeding those in need.

Mercy Chefs’ founder, Gary LeBlanc, says his team has been there since the beginning and they plan to stay as long as they’re needed. He also believes they’ll still be needed long after the war is over as the country works to rebuild.

“We are working in the places that are the hard places where no one else is going and where it’s difficult, but that’s where we find the greatest need, so that’s where we serve,” LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc says team members were on the ground days after Russia first invaded Ukraine. Over the course of the past two years, they’ve seen a big shift of emotions.

“The morale is really suffering in Ukraine right now,” LeBlanc said. “There’s a feeling of hopelessness that is setting in, especially among the elderly.”

He says that’s why going in with a hot meal or a beautiful box of groceries is so important.

In the first year of the war, they moved more than 5 million pounds of food to the front lines and even provided baby formula.

“Mercy Chefs just has a love for the people of Ukraine,” LeBlanc said.

Last year, they served 80,000 hot meals and opened three kitchens, one of which was overtaken during the war. A delivery vehicle was also shelled.

“Losing that kitchen was really a blow because were serving a really at risk community with no other means of support, a great number of elderly and handicapped people that have been left behind,” LeBlanc said.

Thankfully, no volunteers have been injured, but they’ve seen a lot.

“They see fighting, they take rounds, it is very very difficult for our folks to be there,” LeBlanc said.

He says the emotions of those they’re serving are a lot different than previous missions. In a natural disaster, it’s usually a short event, but in a warzone it’s ongoing.

“It’s unrelenting, it just continues to move and change, there’s not that breath to continue to recover because you’re still dealing with another traumatic day,” LeBlanc said.

But he says sharing a meal to even just one of the 11 million people in Ukraine facing food insecurity brings hope.

“In Ukraine there are over 5 million internally displaced individuals, these are people in their own country with no place to call home,” LeBlanc said. “So the need is huge.”

They hope to serve 150,000 meals this year and open a new kitchen.

“It’s hope in a way that not a lot of people are able to share and we get to do that,” LeBlanc said.

If you’d like to help with Mercy Chefs’ mission in Ukraine, click here.

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