About Hell’s Kitchen

Hell’s Kitchen is a charitable organization which serves people within the Kharkiv Region, primarily by cooking fresh meals for hospital staff and patients, civilian and military, and getting medical and humanitarian aid delivered by outside drivers.  

We are a busy, noisy, chaotic working kitchen.  We need people who have their heads and hands in the game because people depend on us to get their food prepared.  If one person works very slowly or takes  frequent breaks, nobody likes that.  Volunteers must be willing and able to contribute with the same energy you see from elderly local volunteers around you, and sign up for 6 days a week, including weekend shifts.

Hell’s Kitchen accepts volunteers with no or little experience.   We will provide training as needed from day to day.  

There is little glory, adventure or excitement.  We simply do repetitive tasks, standing for hours, cleaning up and preparing for the next day.  We have to show up on time and stay until the work is done. 

Generally, we have 24-hour access to electricity and water.   However, it is possible for us to have temporary black-outs.  Volunteers can easily find power banks, battery-operated room lamps and candles in town. Right now, in late April, there was some surprising snowfall, but that is after two weeks of blissful sunshine and blue skies.

About our volunteers

From Europe to Asia, from South America to North America, hundreds of volunteers have served at Hell’s Kitchen. Some now have temporary residence permits and are staying long-term.

This German news report tells our story:

‍https://www.dw.com/en/volunteers-in-ukraines-kharkiv-cook-for-hospital-soldiers/video-67117325

• A variety of nationalities, with about 50% locals daily
• Foreign volunteers are usually 18-65, but we accept older folks who are able to do the job.  

What do we expect of our volunteers?

• Ideally, volunteers should be physically able to stand for long periods, lift and carry up to 15 kg/35 lbs, reach, stretch and bend down, as this is what we do all day for about 6 hours, every day in the bakery.  Some have come anyway, and they suffer because of it, and sometimes need to return home early.  This is no place to test yourself, so please make sure you choose the right volunteering conditions.   

• Volunteers must be mentally stable, as well.   In other words, if they have conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, depression or ADHD, these should be manageable, as the frequent daily air raid sirens, the ambulance sirens, daily explosions and air defense sounds here could worsen their conditions.   Prescriptions for any meds must be brought with volunteers when entering and exiting Ukraine.

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• Volunteers must treat each other with respect.   There is a range of personalities, ages, genders, nationalities, etc.   Harassment and bullying, in or out of the kitchen, will not be tolerated.

• Volunteers must show up on time, according to the Scheduler times listed.   They check with the head baker or a coordinator if  they need to leave early.   If they will be late or need to cancel, they need to notify scheduling coordinator Fiona.

• Volunteers prepare food for hospital patients and medical staff, therefore volunteers who  have intestinal or gut illnesses must avoid the kitchen for two days so  we don’t cause illness among the people who receive the meals we prepare.

Daily work stations

• In Hell’s Kitchen, volunteers wash and peel vegetables for the soups, salads and main dishes.   Usually, a team of four foreign volunteers do this starting as early as 07:00, and it may take several hours to complete.  Starting times vary, and are listed in Scheduler, our shift sign-up program. We also need people in the bakery, which means doing the physical tasks of lifting, carrying, bending, reaching and standing through the shift, which is usually about 5 to 6 hours.  Bakery shifts involve a mix of local and foreign volunteers led by a head baker.  It usually finishes around 14:30.  

• The washing station involves standing for four hours or so, cleaning all the kinds of items in a bulk production kitchen, from hand utensils to deep pots.    You work in a team of two, switching tasks half-way through: either washing or drying.

• One volunteer assists the delivery driver once or twice a week.   These are in-city hospital deliveries of our meals.   This requires an early start of 7:00 or 7:30 AM.  It finishes around 11:30.   It requires carrying many 10 kg buckets up stairs, moving such buckets around within the delivery van.  

Other expectations:

1. We ask our volunteers to double check  the times of their shifts and ensure they come in a few minutes early to grab a coffee or tea and an apron, change shoes or clothes, if they like.
2. Volunteers may come with significant managerial or other experience, but they must be flexible, humble and readily accept  instruction when given.   
3. We expect everyone to monitor our Signal chat groups where there is information about shifts, changes, procedures, high risk warnings, etc.  Another is for social posts about activities, meet-ups.  
4. We always clean up after our tasks in bakery, veg prep or washing station, taking our cups and plates to clean them ourselves.   Food and drinks are provided for volunteers on their working days.
5. Volunteers cannot wear jackets or coats beyond the lobby into the food prep area. There is a changing room for these.
6.  We ask that volunteers sign up for six days per week. When signing up for shifts, we sign up for a variety of tasks, not the same one repeatedly, please, so everyone gets a chance to do their favorite, and we share the burden of the more unpopular tasks.
7. One more scheduling note : Don't plan on working on your arrival day. Ease into it. Take the following day off before beginning.  I suggest signing up for a vegetable prep shift (3-4 hours or so) first as you may sit down for much of it.

Information about life/situation in Kharkiv: 

Life goes on with people doing whatever they normally do, and first-time volunteers are a bit surprised to see a fairly normal existence, despite the air raid sirens, drones and all.    The shops are full of a variety of products, the cafes are running, and the open marketplaces hum with activity.   

Watch the news, try to grasp the situation , the active combat in  the villages north of us, for example, is just about 15-20 miles from here. And it is unstable. Understand what you are getting into. 

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Usually, people like these, lined up for ice cream, don’t move an inch when they hear an air raid siren blaring - or even explosions.  This photo was taken just after an explosion was heard. Depends on how distant the sound is. We recommend that you pay attention to where the nearest shelter might be; look for side or rear entrances of buildings or just slip into an archway.   Most buildings have basements with signs.

Belgorod Oblast, Russian Fed., is just 20 miles north of us, and there is daily combat, usually from drones, missiles, etc.    

Here are valuable links for air raid information for Kharkiv:

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ukrainealarm

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%96%D1%82%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B0/id16119553

Volunteer Tasks, Shifts and Daily Life at Hell's Kitchen:

• Help prepare meal ingredients (cutting, washing, slicing, carrying, stirring, etc.) but there are specific cooks, all local, who do the actual cooking.  Wash pots, containers.  Sitting and standing during the shift.  

• Cleaning is everyone’s responsibility ; if we sign up for bakery, we will have some cleaning tasks to do.  We cannot just walk out and leave it in our teammates’ hands. The same for vegetable prep duties - the cleaning must be shared.

• Prepare bread rolls as part of a team.  Typically, volunteers help weigh ingredients, measure the dough, form the dough, package the rolls for pick-up, and clean up the bakery. We usually form over 700 rolls by hand per day.  This requires standing for almost the entire shift of up to  6-7 hours. 

• Help load and unload delivery vans of various items when they are at Hell’s Kitchen.  We form human chains if there is a lot to deal with.  We are looking for people strong enough to participate, meaning you may handle items weighing up to 20 kg for a short period of time. Heavy items (50 kg) might be carried by pairs.

• Sorry, we don’t deliver things to the front lines, do evacuations or serve people food here.  If this is what you would like to do,  check out www.volunteeringinukraine.com for details and contacts at other organizations.   

• Generally, we need early birds, people who can get to the kitchen early and ON TIME in the morning. Usually by 07:30 (only for veg prep), 08:30 - 09:30 (bakery - it varies and is written on the schedule).   Every day, you can sign up one week in advance, for example, today is Tuesday, and our Scheduler program allows you to sign up for the following Tuesday. Everyone signs up for at least one weekend day.   You might have days where there is no need for more volunteers, so you will have that time free to explore the city or find another aid group which needs you those days.

             NOTE:  You will get access to the shift sign up program called Scheduler 4 days prior to your Kharkiv arrival date.   It will be sent via the app SIGNAL via “Mr Data”, so please install it.   

• Are flexible and adapt if the situation changes - power goes out, for example, or there is no hot water, heating  or A/C in your hostel or rented flat.  Or you go in to see that there is no need for more bakery volunteers, so you find other tasks to be done that day or take the day off.    

• Be prepared for lulls in activity, where you don’t seem to have any tasks.  It happens.  But there could be an opportunity to lend a hand to the kitchen team - stirring, pouring, cooling down main dishes, for example.   Taking out the trash, sweeping up.    Please take initiative, and ask someone if they need help: “Mohzhnuh?” (May I?) is a helpful phrase.   

• Get instructions on how to do tasks - it may be in Ukrainian/ Russian, plus gestures.  Be patient; local volunteers have seen many, many foreign volunteers who don’t speak their language.  No need to get frustrated; just smile, and try to follow along.  People try their best. 

• Volunteers don’t all need special visas to help because some nationalities can stay in UA for a certain period of time without a visa.  You will need to check the UA government website about your legal requirements to enter UA.  Check this link: https://mfa.gov.ua/en/consular-affairs/entry-and-stay-foreigners-ukraine/visa-information

We sometimes bake treats like cinnamon rolls or pizza for the team and visitors.

Another video link of a news report showing our daily work: https://youtu.be/RJA2ooALCR