To Austin's Ukrainian community, the meaning of food has co-evolved with the war itself.
Tonya Levchuk would have laughed her wry, post-Soviet laugh if you asked her how much Ukrainian food she was eating in January 2022. She'd ask, with a smirk, who had the time to cook such old-world things. Like many emerging from the worst of the pandemic, Tonya was doing her best to work, work out, and eke out eight hours of sleep. Peeling vegetables for soups from her native Ukraine took a backseat to the demands, and conveniences, of suburban life.
Levchuk and many other Austin-based Ukrainians have spoken about how food connects people and how its cultural, emotional, and physiological significance has meant the world to them in this difficult time – as is true for most displaced people everywhere. What's different about the Ukrainian diaspora is that they have a role to play from home in Putin's war.
Levchuk wasn't the only Ukrainian eating sparingly and sporadically during the first few weeks of the war; many other Ukrainians were in a kava-fueled state, on a mission. Shchi is a distinctly Russian food that most Ukrainians would not deign to eat much less consider their own. It's a common joke among Ukrainians that shchi is simply leftover borsch rinsed in water, devoid of flavor. The politics of borsch have played an outsized role in the story of the Ukrainian community in Austin as well as what could be interpreted as the several-hundred-years-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Tonya Levchuk jokes that her wardrobe has shrunk since her family moved in. Her mother, who is always on a diet, is also always making Ukrainian food. Even though her mom rarely eats what she makes, she's thrilled to spend several hours making sausage and airy breads from scratch.
Despite the cold and rain, the party saw a healthy turnout in Leander, where many Ukrainians are resettled. The point, Levchuk said, was to gather the community for a mutual aid swap. Refugees and volunteers could figure out who needs what, and hopefully get their needs met. Levchuk distributed $500 H-E-B gift cards, provided through a grant from the grocer, to 20 single Ukrainian mothers. The proceeds from the sales of the varenyky will be distributed among the refugees who prepared them.
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