Local volunteers join World Central Kitchen’s relief efforts

Feeding people who are hungry has been the core mission of Rev. Laurie Garramone’s church, Saint John’s Episcopal, for 30 years.

“We consider having healthy food a very basic need. But we live in a society right now where healthy, nutritious foods are not really available to everybody equally,” says Garramone.

In 2020, Garramone took that mission across the world. She joined her friend Cheryl McGrattan, volunteering with World Central Kitchen to help feed refugees of the war in Ukraine. It’s an organization on the front lines to feed people in crisis.

“They give food to people who need food. There aren’t a lot of questions asked. And it was astonishing for me to see the number of volunteers that came from around the world,” Garramone said.

On April 1, seven WCK staffers were targeted and killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. One of them was Damian Soból, a man Garramone and McGrattan worked with while they were volunteering near the Ukrainian border.

“I know that when they got in those vehicles, they recognized that taking care of their neighbors and feeding their neighbors meant more to them than their own lives. And that is a World Central Kitchen. I’m actually getting chills thinking about it now, because the people there were committed in ways that I’ve never met,” Garramone said.

For the people who volunteer, she says helping others is most important, no matter the cost.

“You never know when you volunteer for something on a humanitarian basis, how safe you are. whether it is in Buffalo, New York, or whether it is in Ukraine,” Garramone said.