Famous chef and humanitarian José Andrés supports the international charitable foundation Save Ukraine (SaveUA) through his Longer Tables Fund. This new cooperation between SaveUA and the Longer Tables Fund will allow us to provide immediate support to Ukrainian dairy farmers who are located in the frontline areas.

During the spring and summer of 2025, 62 diesel generators with a capacity of 80 and 100 kilowatts - each capable of running a farm with 200 to 800 cows - will be delivered to Ukraine to support dairy farms in the regions most affected by the war and power outages.

According to Andrii Dykun, the UAC Chairman and founder of SaveUA, these generators are much more than just a source of electricity - they are vital for the survival of the Ukrainian dairy industry. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has continued its targeted attacks on Ukraine's energy system, which have affected the population and businesses, especially farmers.

“Due to the damage to the energy infrastructure, power outages last from several hours to several days, which threatens Ukraine's food security. For dairy farms, even 1-2 hours of interruptions are critical, as they result in the loss of at least 1 liter of daily milk yield, and recovery to the previous level of productivity takes months. These generators will power milking equipment and refrigeration systems, ensuring that farmers can continue their work, support their communities and feed their people even in the face of incredible challenges. It's not just about turning on the lights - it's about supporting Ukraine's economy,” said Andrii Dykun.

The urgent need for dairy farms to have reliable alternative sources of electricity was once again confirmed by the consequences of Russia's energy terror during the record-breaking heat wave in the summer of 2024. Emergency power outages lasted more than 16 hours a day, and farms had no backup energy sources to save cows from heat stress, leading to a 20-40% drop in milk yields. The farms that will receive the generators keep about 40,000 cows, and nearly 1.5 million Ukrainians consume dairy products made from the milk they supply each year. With this humanitarian assistance with generators, they will receive additional support to maintain milk production and the health of their cows.

Jose Andrés commented: “I am honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian dairy farmers and support the vital work of SaveUA. I am inspired by the bravery and solidarity of these farmers and I am proud that the purchase of generators for war-affected dairy farms will help Ukraine continue to feed its people. Over the past three years, we have learned so much about resilience, about innovation, about community - and about the power of food to inspire hope. I know that this is only the first step in restoring Ukraine's capacity to produce the food the world depends on, but I hope it will bring immediate relief and stability to those who feed their communities.”

José Andrés has spent more than 100 days in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, leading the World Central Kitchen team that has provided more than 270 million meals to Ukrainians. Now, Andrés continues to support the people of Ukraine through his Long Tables Foundation, ensuring that recovery efforts continue to advance in the hardest-hit areas of Ukraine, leaving no one behind.

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The Longer Tables Fund was founded in 2023 by chef José Andrés. This initiative aims to address pressing issues in the areas of food systems, social justice, education and advocacy, and community upliftment.

This is the second joint project of the Save Ukraine Charitable Foundation (SaveUA) with Jose Andres. With the support of World Central Kitchen (WCK), from the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, another humanitarian headquarters has been opened in the city of Uman, Cherkasy region, where our team weekly prepared and delivered 29,000 food packages to Ukrainians in the affected areas. In total, in cooperation with WCK, we provided 250,000 food packages, providing the necessary food to about 800,000 people.

SaveUA is an international charitable foundation established by farmers in the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.