From Yorkville to Kyiv: How a war brought a Canadian cook overseas to help Ukrainian troops
CBC
When Joshua Cabral got to Ukraine, he was advised to download the air-raid app — for obvious reasons.
He was out for a walk the first time the app sounded the alarm
"I remember feeling this spike of fear," Cabral, a 39-year-old chef from Ontario, said in an interview. "Oh my God, this is happening, this is a reality now."
The reaction of the Ukrainians on the street around him was telling.
"They're not doing anything, they are just carrying on with their business," said Cabral, recalling the juxtaposition between a screaming alarm and the lack of panic on the street.
"It was the most surreal experience of my life."
As Cabral explains, Russian's ongoing invasion of Ukraine put him on a path to support the defending nation, in the form of helping to provide nourishing meals for the soldiers serving on the front lines of the war.
Since March, Cabral has been volunteering with the Magic Food Army — a Ukrainian charitable organization dedicated to preparing hearty and nutritious meals for the soldiers on the front line.
Cabral, who grew up in Elmvale, Ont., had worked in kitchens back home in Canada for years, but the call to Ukraine came from a personal connection — including having a Ukrainian grandmother.
When Russia began its aggression against Ukraine a decade ago in Crimea and in Eastern Ukraine, Cabral said he got a call from his grandmother asking if he was aware of what was going on. "That's your family over there," she said.
That conversation "planted a seed," he said, which grew into something bigger when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
He left a job at a fine dining establishment in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood to help Ukraine.
"To an extent, it was like a call home," said Cabral. "It was an opportunity to find out about a part of my history that I had been cut off from, and the realization that if Russia was successful, I would be forever cut off from it."
Initially, Cabral spent several months volunteering with the World Central Kitchen, in Ukraine and Poland.
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