Meals on wheels helping refugees
Crieff volunteer Chris joins food mercy mission
A team from Perthshire, including Crieff’s Chris McIntosh, has been at the Polish border aiding those trying to escape the war in Ukraine.
Moved by the plight of the refugees, Chris didn’t hesitate when friend David Fox-Pitt asked if he wanted to accompany him across Europe to set up a field kitchen for weary travellers during the mass exodus as a result of the invasion by Russian forces.
Travelling through the Netherlands and across Germany with David’s allterrain Unimog vehicle and trailer loaded up with supplies and a pizza oven, it took Chris, David and two other friends three days to reach the border.
Former military man Chris explained: “David runs an outdoor events company – Wild Fox Events – and rather than have his equipment sitting in a shed on Loch Tay, he decided to put it to good use, along with his logistic skills, to set up a border feeding station.
“So on the back of Siobhan’s Trust, a charity he set up to support undervalued and deprived youngsters in Dundee, David decided to switch his focus temporarily to support the fleeing refugees.
“Over the next three days
a plan was devised to drive the necessary eight tons of equipment and food.
“On March 6, four men, three marquees, two trucks plus trailers and pizza oven, and a Chinese dragon for luck on the front of the Unimog vehicle, set off from Tiso’s in Perth and over the next four days travelled 1600 miles to Medyka – a border crossing 30 miles from Lviv.
“There we set up a soup/ pizza kitchen to provide hot drinks, warm food and heated tentage. During the first six days, we dispensed over 8000 hot drinks and 2000 meals. With only four of us originally, this level of enterprise was only possible with the terrific support of other volunteers, from many countries, who gave an hour, a day or a week
of their time, to assist us in our endeavour.
“It was basically just wellintentioned enthusiastic amateurs like us.
“When I left to come home there were around 50 to 60 stalls set up at the border point from a variety of organisations that had all just said ‘let’s go and do something’.”
Chris described the scenes he witnessed as heartbreaking.
Many of the refugees came through at night when it was freezing – as cold as -12 degrees at some points.
Even the olive oil for the pizzas froze, and the Siobhan Trust food and drink station was one of the only facilities able to provide hot drinks and food around the clock.
It was mostly women and
children, and the elderly, passing through as the men had stayed behind in Ukraine to fight. Many of the refugees were ill- equipped, without gloves and hats.
Chris said: “Some were quite traumatised too. There were kids with blank stares, as they had come from scenes of fighting in Kharkiv and Kyiv. There were many very sad and pitiful sights, with harrowing scenes of hypothermic kids being dragged along by desperate mums and grandparents, often with their pets. We saw lots of cats and dogs and even a child’s treasured ferret.”
The team could hear the missiles firing in, and Chris managed to venture over the border into Ukraine, where he witnessed the two kilometrelong queue of refugees waiting for hours as they filtered into Poland.
Chris said an interesting perspective on human nature had arisen too.
He continued: “These kind of crises bring out the whole spectrum of behaviours from the spivs stealing food to sell over the Ukrainian border to the two kilometre queue of refugees waiting to be processed, and human traffickers – some arrested on site, to the selfless and wonderfully generous.
“The site was all pretty chaotic at the start of the operation two weeks ago, with very little central control, but things are beginning to improve now.”
Chris flew back to Scotland on Monday night but is planning to return to Poland to provide more help and accompany David on his homeward journey, whenever that may be.
He added: “The Scottish team are unsure how long they are likely to remain on the border, leading this humanitarian effort, but David said he will stay as long as it takes, as this is such an important task.”
Siobhan Trust’s slogan is ‘# MakePizzaNotWar’ and anyone wishing to support its crucial effort can donate online at https:// siobhanstrust.uk/