POLAND

2022 The day after the start of the Ukraine war, we started serving meals to the refugees coming across the border into Poland. We established what was our largest kitchen to date in a warehouse where we were cooking tens of thousands of meals per day. This was in a beautiful small town called Przemyśl near the border. We stayed at a hotel that was formerly a castle, which we called The Castle. At The Castle there was a dog that we called Dog. Dog had a fun tom and jerry-like relationship with the security guard who was always chasing him away. I became good friends with Dog. He would wait for me when I got home and would come and stay with me in my hotel room. Of course, this was purely transactional for him because I fed him, but for me it was nice company, especially when I got COVID and had to stay quarantined in my room (and roam The Castle grounds) for two weeks.

I also worked to establish a large logistical effort to move about 10 trucks per day of wholesale food product from Poland into Ukraine, for which I spent 2 weeks in Warsaw. It is in Warsaw that I had the best Old Fashion cocktail in my life.