Reston Borscht Making Classes Raises $173K for Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief Effort

RESTON, VA — "Food is how you show love." That's what Radhika Murari said when she came up with the idea to raise money for humanitarian relief by helping two Ukrainian sisters promote their borscht-making class on Saturday.

How right she was.

Cook for Ukraine raised more than $173,000, making it one of the leading fundraisers for The World Central Kitchen's Ukrainian relief effort. As of Monday afternoon, they'd received 1,087 donations, with an average of $159 per donation.

"I started this on Saturday evening telling my friends I wanted to raise 2,000 bucks," Murari said. "Before I knew it, we have something like 600 donors."

More that 40 people showed up at Murari's Reston home on Saturday take part in Slava and Elona Dutchak's cooking class, which was broadcast live Zoom.

Slava Dutchak first came to the U.S. eight years ago to get her doctoral degree from Clemson University. Her family moved to Herndon just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so they don't have a lot of connections in the community. Elona, came to visit a month ago, weeks before the crisis in their homeland.

Looking for a way to share their culture locally, the sisters met Murari on a the Reston-Herndon Facebook group and a plan was hatched. Slava and Elona would provide the borscht-making know-how and Murari would handle the rest.

Related: Ukrainian Sisters Share Food To Support Humanitarian Relief

Murari enlisted the help of her friends Bri Morgan, Andreas Groehn, Meg Donnelly and Susan Rose to pull the event off. This included putting together the recipe, buying supplies, setting up monitors and cameras for the Zoom presentation and taking photos. She hopes to replicate the model for future fundraising opportunities.

"I've actually got a really good crew of local men and women," she said, "We're just going to get better and better at this stuff."

In a few days, Murari will send out a thank you email to all the donors with a link to the edited video of the Zoom broadcast, along with photos of Saturday's class.

People interested in learning more or making a contribution can visit Cook For Ukraine.