B.C. resident part of United Nations effort to get food supplies to war weary Ukraine
Global News
The biggest challenge, Turner says, is access, particularly in the areas hardest-hit by Russian military shelling and missiles.
The United Nations says its world food programme is aiming to stave off hunger faced by Ukrainians still inside the war-ravaged country.
Among those spearheading the massive effort is a former B.C. resident from Salmon Arm who is chief of staff for the world’s largest humanitarian organization.
“It’s about getting as much food in as quickly as we can and particularly to communities that we fear may become besieged at some point,” Robert Turner told Global News.
“And so, we want to create strategic stocks inside those communities.”
The organization’s emergency operation is focused on getting desperately needed food supplies to people fleeing Ukraine.
“We’ve provided food assistance to more than 700,000 people inside Ukraine,” said Turner. “That’ll be a million by the end of this month. It’ll be two-and-a-half million during the course of April.”
But the biggest challenge Turner says is access — particularly in the hardest-hit areas.
“The areas that you’re seeing on TV where … there’s no running water, where the power is out, there’s no fuel, no food or limited, we simply can’t get there,” he said, adding “we have food in trucks literally ready to go to Mariupol if we get access.”