Cumberland bakery raising money to support Ukraine

A local bakery in Ottawa's east end is helping to support Ukraine and its citizens, by donating proceeds from the sale of its unique, handmade pastries, with Ukrainian-inspired flavours.

The Black Walnut Bakery in Cumberland offers sweet treats and savoury eats - all made in-house each day.  However, there is one special poppy-seed topped item which is selling out fast. 

The 'Makivnyk Croissant’. The delicate pastry is filled with a traditional blend of raisins, walnuts and lightly sweetened with honey and inspired by Myroslava Mykytyn’s heritage.

"I’m Ukrainian; both my parents are Ukrainian, I’m second generation. It was my grandparents that immigrated to Canada after World War II,” says Mykytyn, who began a Bake for Ukraine fundraiser at the onset of the Russian invasion.

"We started with the blue and yellow egg bread that we made and we’re rotating every two weeks with a new product and the proceeds from these sales are going to the Canada Ukraine Foundation."

The bakery has raised more than $4,000.

Cassian Soltykevych, national secretary with the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, says the money will be used for humanitarian aid to provide food, shelter support, water and other emergency supplies required.

"The Canada-Ukraine Foundation has lots of experience in Ukraine, over 30 years worth and has raised almost $20 million," Soltykevych says. "Cash is king because as much as we like to send things over, Europe is a big area and it’s much more logistically simple to buy things in Europe and then drive them over whether it’s from Germany or whether it’s from Poland or other countries into Ukraine."

"This is our small way to make a difference with what we can," says Mykytyn. "We have no plans to stop, I’m really hoping (the war in Ukraine) finishes soon. It’s really scary to think that this could be a year or more but we will keep baking.”