Baba Jenny’s ready to Welcome Ukrainian Refugees with Open Arms

Baba Jenny’s ready to Welcome Ukrainian Refugees with Open Arms

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

A humanitarian crisis of global proportions has prompted owners of a Mannville based company to offer employment and accommodation for up to 15 Ukrainian refugees over the next year. Baba Jenny’s Ukrainian Foods production facility in Mannville has been operating in the community since 2019.

The tried and true original recipes are known far and wide, just like Jenny Borysiuk, who was born in Mannville to Ukrainian immigrants. When she first went to school she spoke only Ukrainian and was bullied for her heritage. Full circle to running her own catering company for 30 plus years. She is still remembered as being one the best caterers the community has ever had.

Garry & Carolyn Pulyk, together with Baba Jenny started their company just over 10 years ago. They hired four local Babas to help roll cabbage rolls and another girl to help with some of the specialty products in their little 5,000 square foot facility in Vermilion. In the summer of 2019, they relocated to a new facility in Mannville where they had added on to the cabbage roll division and increased the building’s square footage to 14,000.

Human Resources Manager Katie Toews said the company now employs 40 plus women year round. “On an average day we will churn out around 18,000 pierogi using up to 1,200 lbs of potatoes that are individually handled to ensure quality. We usually make around 11,000 cabbage rolls each day. We make a total of 10 different products on a regular basis including four flavours of pierogi, borscht, and cabbage rolls, as well as specialties like nalysnyky, perishke, and pompushky.”

Toews is proud to say that all of the ingredients are sourced locally, and no preservatives or additives are used at the facility. All of the products are frozen and packaged and can be found in many grocery storesthroughout western Canada.

Employee Kelly Ludwig.

(Michelle Pinon/Photo)

On March 1 Baba Jenny’s put the call out on the company’s Facebook page asking people in the community if they have appropriate housing to accommodate refugees to contact them. Toews said the response has been great.

“We’re so grateful for all the support our community has shown us in our initiative. We’ve had several offers for housing options right in Mannville at good rates, as well as offers to help supply clothing and other essentials once the refugees start arriving. People have offered us monetary donations. And some as far as Calgary have offered to send out essentials so we’re just waiting to see how quickly we can get the first refugees in.”

She went on to say, “The invasion of Ukraine and the bombing that has followed has been devastating to watch. Millions have fled Ukraine, many of them women who may have nothing left to return to.

Together with Carolyn, many others in our company and community have Ukrainian heritage. It hits close to home when people you know are fleeing for their lives. The countries around Ukraine have opened their arms, but they are overflowing with refugees. With an uncertain future for so many Ukrainians, we are grateful that Canada is also opening its borders to refugees and implementing faster entrances to Canada as well as open work permits.

This war is a terrible situation, and we feel the least we can do is open our community and company to support as many refugees as we can and encourage other communities and companies to do the same.

Not only can we help them find their way in a new country, but they will be a huge asset to us. Ukrainians are a hardworking, determined people and could benefit many Albertan employers with their work ethics.

The aftermath of Covid has left employers struggling to find employees willing to leave home and work a consistent fulltime shift. We can help Ukrainians, and they will certainly not be a burden to us.”