Ukrainian Easter eggs help fund food bank

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2020 (1963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Ukrainian Easter egg artist recently embarked on an initiative to raise funds for a local food bank by auctioning off his impressive pysanky.

Peter Czehryn began creating pysanky, or Ukrainian Easter eggs, about 40 years ago but he’s never sold any of his creations.

During this current period of social distancing, Czehryn and his wife, Paulette Côté, began brainstorming ways to help the St. Mary’s Road Food Bank, where they are both long-time volunteers.

The Windsor Park couple decided to launch a Facebook page entitled It’s Folk, No Yolk. Egg Art by Peter to auction off t27 eggs in 15 days, with the project wrapping up on April 18.

In total, the Ukrainian Easter egg auction brought in more than $2,000 for the food bank, which is an outreach project of St. Mary’s Road United Church.

“We’re overwhelmed. We never thought it would be anything like this. Once we got going, it was just like a sonic reaction. It just kept going and going,” Czehryn said.

“Initially we thought it was going to be a lot of local people but it’s expanded. This has been beyond any expectation we had.”

Côté said she felt compelled to help the food bank when they could no longer volunteer in person, due to the pandemic. Now the fundraising project has wrapped up, she’s looking forward to getting Czehryn’s creations to their rightful new owners.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to deliver the eggs and leave them on the doorsteps,” she said.

“When the pandemic is over and the borders open again, we’re going to hit the road and deliver all the eggs to family members in Alberta and B.C. who are supporting the project.”

Joan Boone, co-ordinator of the St. Mary’s Road Food Bank, is grateful for the support.

The monetary donation will go towards weekly grocery shopping trips to buy fresh produce, peanut butter, cereal and rice.

“Not only is Peter decorating and auctioning the eggs that he’s making but we buy fresh eggs every week for our clients as well,” Boone said.

“We do that of our own accord from the church for 60 families every week.”

Prior to the pandemic, the food bank hosted a weekly boutique, where clients could purchase items for $1, which helped offset the cost of eggs.

Food and monetary donations are always welcome to help keep the much-needed service in operation. To contribut, community members can drop off food donations, including canned goods, on Wednesdays starting at 9:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Road United Church (613 St. Mary’s Rd.).

Clients begin to arrive at the food bank on Wednesdays at around 12:30 p.m. Anyone interested in becoming a client should phone Winnipeg Harvest at 204-982-3660 to discuss their needs.

“Women can mention if they need feminine hygiene products and if babies in the family need formula or diapers. We make the packages up to suit that particular family’s needs,” Boone said.

“We also have church ladies who cook all morning and make treats. We serve our clients these freshly baked snacks and juice and tea — and then we drive them home at no cost. In the whole of Winnipeg, nobody else does this but us.”

Looking ahead, Czehryn hopes to do a similar project next year to support the Canadian Hemophilia Society – Manitoba Chapter.

“Really, our hope was to share joy in the art while helping one of our favourite organizations during this very challenging time,” he said.

“It’s amazing how something like the COVID-19 pandemic can open up possibilities that we hadn’t considered before.”