From Eltham to Ukraine, with love
More than 100 years after Eltham mum Helena Barnard baked gingernuts to send to her boys fighting in World War I, biscuits from her recipe are headed to the trenches of Eastern Europe.
The bakers this time are David and Maria Hancock, who have raised $2500 so far in a few months, making and selling the crunchy little biscuits to raise money to help victims of the war in Ukraine.
The couple own the former Eltham Post Office in South Taranaki, which they have turned into their dream home, with part of it a luxury accommodation suite named after Helena Barnard, who received the British Medal of Honour for her efforts in baking and posting four and half tons of gingernuts overseas to soldiers over the two world wars.
The couple were moved to help after seeing images of the destruction in Ukraine a few months ago, and hearing a radio interview with Mike Seawright, founder of international humanitarian organisation ReliefAid, David said. ‘‘It is a big thing, living in this post office in this little town, we see those beautiful old buildings destroyed, big holes in them . . . it is very easy to imagine this beautiful building there, imagine that scenario for us,’’ he said.
Making biscuits with Helena’s old recipe to raise money was the obvious choice, he said, although he had not done much baking for many years. ‘‘They are [ReliefAid] a great organisation, a very Kiwi organisation,’’ David said. ‘‘They turn up with tarpaulins and hot meals for people – isn’t that what it is about?’’
The project is personal for Maria, who grew up in Transylvania (which became part of Romania) and was 12 when it was occupied by Russian troops. ‘‘I remember Russian soldiers with big hats and boots in the streets, living in the houses for nothing, on the back of our country.’’ Years later, as a young mother, she fled her homeland to escape the Communist regime, leaving her daughter behind for three years with her parents, and spending a year as a refugee in Austria. ‘‘I am from a former Communist country, I understand what Communism means,’’ she said. ‘‘Normal Russian people are lovely, just like everyone else, but Putin [the Russian president] is a criminal. ‘‘He destroys everything, and by doing that, he destroys the history of that country, that is what he wants; and a country without history, what is that?’’
She said the Ukraine winter would be very tough on people living in damaged homes or makeshift shelters without electricity, running water and heating, with 40% of the country’s infrastructure destroyed by bombing.
‘‘It is even colder there than in my country, it will be minus 10, minus 15, minus 20, the winter is so long, it goes forever.’’
The couple’s bikkie production is a team effort.
David mixes, shapes and bakes the biscuits (each batch uses half a tin of golden syrup, a packet of ginger and a lot of butter), and Maria counts them into the bags, seals them and ties them up with gold twine, with several knots to ensure they don’t get soft.
‘‘We sell them for $5 for about 15, it is like communion bread really, but when you eat them, you can think of the people of Ukraine,’’ he said.
Each session results in about 22 packets of the tiny, super crunchy little biscuits.
Helena Barnard made the biscuits small, so her sons could keep a handful in their pockets.
The biscuits have sold well in the region, where they are available at The Bank design store in Eltham, Fenton St Art Collective in Stratford, Hāwera’s Upside Down Cafe, and at Donna’s Coffee Shack in Eltham, where the Hancocks are regulars. One man turned up outside their home one morning and bought a kilogram, another neighbour handed over cash for the cause but didn’t want the biscuits, David said. So far, they have raised about $2500 with gingernut sales. They also donated a night for two in the Helena Room, with a meal from Upside Down Cafe, to a fundraising auction.
On Wednesday, ReliefAid communications director Anne Bulley and Seawright flew back to Ukraine, taking 31 packets of the biscuits with them.
‘‘We are doing a big aid distribution, including 6600 items of warm clothing for vulnerable adults and children, 6000 thermal blankets, 1000 stoves and fuel,’’ Bulley said. ‘‘Our team in Ukraine is currently delivering medical supplies and food in Mykolaiv and taking delivery of winter aid.’’
The intervention is tailored to mitigate the impact of loss of key services. It also includes solarpowered lamps with cellphone charging capacity.
The organisation also delivered food, medical supplies and medicines, as well as tool kits and materials to help people repair and weatherproof homes impacted by missile damage.
In the face of such massive need, the packets of little biscuits from Eltham are a token to remind the Ukraine people that they are not forgotten, Bulley said.
‘‘Physical help is really important but there is also the psychological side, letting them know that amid all the destruction, there are people in the world wanting to help.’’
She remembered talking recently with a group of people standing around looking at their homes reduced to rubble, about the aid, and what they missed the most.
‘‘An 8-year-old girl – her name is Tatiana – piped up and said ‘sweets’. I am hoping there are a few Tatianas out there who we can give a smile to,’’ she said.
For Mrs Barnard’s Gingernuts Recipe go to ngataonga.org.nz/ blog/nz-history/gingernutsrecipe/.
‘‘Physical help is really important but there is also the psychological side, letting them know . . . there are people in the world wanting to help.’’
Anne Bulley ReliefAid