German Food Bridge delivers over 500 truckloads with emergency aid to Ukraine 

The German Food Bridge (GFB) has now successfully coordinated the delivery of 515 truckloads to Ukraine, equaling more than 14.500 pallets with food and other emergency aid products from Germany and neighboring EU countries to Ukraine. The initiative has been established already in the beginning of March 2022, just days after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine on 24th February 2022. While after some months, the name had changed from Coordination Centre for Food Aid to Ukraine to German Food Bridge, its target remained the same: to provide food to the Ukrainian people in need. Embedded initially into Agritrade Ukraine, in the beginning of 2023, it was officially transferred to the German-Ukrainian Agricultural Policy Dialogue, both being bilateral cooperation projects of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). 

Jointly with IAK Agrar Consulting, AFC coordinates food donations of mostly German retailers, producers and other organizations to transfer warehouses in Poland, especially to the hub in the city of Dębica. In April 2022, the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Ukraine) and the Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Poland) initiated it as an interim storage facility for aid products on their way to Ukraine. AFC has employed one full-time expert, organizing, handling and documenting all incoming and outgoing goods there on the ground. From this hub, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) pick up the products and deliver them to recipients in need of assistance. The GFB cooperates with about 50 NGOs, delivering the goods to particularly affected cities, such as Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Chernihiv and Kherson. 

As of 3rd of May 2023, 108 organizations made available 515 full truckloads with 14.522 pallets of non-perishable, quickly consumable food products, including beverages, canned food and bread. Multinational companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) , local farmers and other initiatives are part of the donation process. Since most donors do not have their own fleet of vehicles, the GFB, in cooperation with external logistics providers, organizes the transport of goods free of charge for the donors.  Companies, organizations and other associations who are interested to provide food aid to the people in Ukraine, please contact the GFB via e-mail (info [at] lebensmittelhilfe-ukraine.de) or phone (>GL3FGE3LJ3JDG–14). Thank you for your kind contribution in advance! 

If you would like to learn more about the GFB, pleasec ontact our project coordinator Berthold Averweg (berthold.averweg [at] afci.de), or our logistic expert Alexander Lotz (alexander.lotz [at] afci.de).