From one suitcase to 20+ stores
It started with a suitcase.
When the war in Ukraine began in 2022, families arrived in Edmonton with one suitcase each. We opened a donation centre, the FreeStore for Ukrainian Newcomers, and helped about 20,000 newcomers with the essentials.
Then the women we’d helped came back to volunteer, cook and share their recipes. With First Nations Chef Matthew Potts opening his kitchen to us, our first pop-up sold out in a single day.
Today DONYA is a café, a catering company and a frozen food brand in grocery stores across Alberta. Food is more than a meal for us. It’s memory, identity and a message of peace, shared one perogy at a time.
