Making a difference in Ukraine with pierogies and vodka

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A Toronto restaurant and an Ontario vodka producer are each pitching in to raise money separately for the global humanitarian effort to help Ukraine.

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Barberian’s Steak House has added pierogies to its menu and is donating $10 for each order to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Meanwhile, Zirkova Vodka, based in Oakville, is donating all of its profits to the Canada Ukraine Foundation.

“This is a humanitarian disaster we have not seen in many years,” said Arron Barberian. “So we’ve decided to do something. We’ve challenged other restaurants to do something.”

The steak house has added an extra choice to its menu when it comes to ordering a side dish.

“I tasked Jessie, our chef, to come up with a pierogi. I was thinking they would be like the size of silver dollars,” said Barberian. “But no, I have made one the size of a Jamaican patty,” he said with a chuckle.

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After five days as a featured side, Barberian says the pierogies are proving to be popular.

“It’s really going well and we’re donating to the UNHCR as the vehicle to donate,” he said.

The restaurateur said because his family has roots as refugees, this was an easy decision.

It is one he hopes other restaurants will follow.

“Ukraine’s national soup is borscht. Put borscht on your menu, put a cabbage roll, put a pierogi on. Do something good. Little amounts of money. Little grains of sand make a beach,” he said.

The push to make a difference during the raging war is spreading across the hospitality industry.

There is already a push across North America to drop the name of the drink “Moscow Mule.”

Like many jurisdictions, Ontario has removed Russian vodka from store shelves.

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The owner of Ukrainian-made vodka Zirkova has a deeply personal connection to the country under attack.

Katherine Vellinga’s grandparents “were survivors of the Stalin genocide against the Ukrainian people.”

She is watching in horror the unrelenting siege that has placed relatives and friends in direct harm.

“When Ukraine was invaded, I was crying, wailing, screaming, helpless, and outraged,” said the Oakville-based producer and distiller.

“We decided to give 100% of our profits to Ukraine.”

Vellinga, who lived in Ukraine for five years from 1997, is in daily contact with a friend — a Canadian lawyer — now part of a Territorial Defense Unit.

“Those of us that are in democracies need to understand that Ukrainians are fighting for their democracy,” said Vellinga.

“The future of the world is at stake.”