Matreshka Cafe

friendsofmoldova12/20/2022

Vadim and Masha are the owners of a small Russian pancake restaurant in Moldova, “Matreshka Cafeteria.” Vadim has been involved as a volunteer for many years, and helped with efforts to support the elderly during Covid. When war broke out, he rushed to the border to help transport Ukrainians to safety, sometimes sleeping 2 hours a night because he still had to run the pancake business. One day, a Ukrainian family that was hungry and had little access to food stopped by, and they fed the family for free. That family told someone else, and the next day several more Ukrainians came. Eventually, there was a line of 40 Ukrainians out the door, hoping to receive help. Vadim and Masha, who normally have the capacity to have less than 15 people inside their place, diligently managed to feed all 40 people. At the end of the day, they realized they didn’t even have the resources to run their own pancake business, let alone feed another 40 people. Vadim and Masha could not simply turn people away, so they reached out to seven different sponsors for help to support their efforts in feeding the Ukrainians, and all of them turned them down. The Friends of Moldova were honored to offer our support.