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The Last Word

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Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

A Message from Ukraine

“Bakers gonna bake.” I’ve always loved this expression. For years, I have used it on my socials, but it was only the day this ridiculous and brutal war started that I finally get it 100%.

I am Anna, a Ukrainian woman, a mother, an entrepreneur and a baker. In our artisan bakery Bakehouse, we have baked sourdough bread and made delicious pastries in the heart of Kyiv, Ukraine since 2015. We were pioneers of sourdough long-fermented bread in Ukraine, and in October 2021, we finally opened the new bakery, Bakehouse Garage, in the Podil district of Kyiv. This is the bakery of my dreams; we spent three years and US $1.5 million to build it.

During the first days of the war, we already had attacks and explosions just a few kilometers from our bakery. So, we had to close the facility on February 24, and we baked only in the old facility, which was in a basement.

Not all the members of our team can come and work. And for women, it is a different challenge. Many of us, especially those of us who have small children, had to leave Kyiv and move to Western Ukraine or abroad. It is too dangerous to stay in Kyiv and other cities of our country, and it is unbearable to hear the sirens and go to bomb shelters with our babies and toddlers tens of times per day. But since the second day of this war, the ones who stayed bake the bread, and we give it for free to our defenders, hospitals, the people in cities and villages hurt by the Russians, and the elderly of Kyiv.

Let me be clear: It is extremely challenging to bake in the warzone. It is hard to find and deliver good ingredients, and transporting our team members is difficult.

Still, the bakers of Bakehouse are making 700-1,000 of these charity loaves every day.

Because bakers gonna bake. And not just at Bakehouse but in other bakeries in Kyiv, Bucha, Odesa and many other cities and villages of Ukraine.

If there is no bread, there is nothing. We baked through Maidan (just half a mile from the bakery) and through the COVID-19 pandemic. And we will bake through this war. CB

— Anna Makievska is the founder of Bakehouse in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a board member for its parent company, Wine Bureau. To learn more about the bakery and how you can help, watch “Baking in Ukraine,” a five-part series featuring Makievska’s conversation with Commercial Baking editor-in-chief, Joanie Spencer.

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