WISCONSIN (NBC 26) — As the Russian invasion in Ukraine continues, one man is back in Northeast Wisconsin following a volunteer trip to Poland.
While Ukrainian families continue to flee their war-torn country, many of them have traveled for days on end without food. Daniel Dillon wanted to help by doing what he does best.
"I love to cook, that's kind of my passion is cooking,” said Daniel Dillon, a Wisconsin native.
Dillon lives in Marion, a small town about an hour away from Green Bay.
He traveled to Poland to volunteer with World Central Kitchen, a non-profit organization providing meals to Ukrainian refugees.
"We were working in the kitchen. Most of what I did was help cut and prepare foods,” Dillon said. “We served apples. We cut, peeled, churned apples like you would not believe."
With all hands on deck, he also got the chance to serve food, allowing him to interact with people crossing into the Polish border town of Medyka.
"Medyka, it's really near where the Russians bombed the military site outside of Lviv. So that had people nervous and had people on edge,” Dillon said.
He shared a story about two Ukrainian women who were staying the same hostel he was at. They had just escaped Ukraine with their cat and were trying to head to Finland.
“They showed me a picture of their town which is gone. They showed me a picture of their family hiding under stairs trying to stay quiet,” Dillon said.
But despite being surrounded by chaos, he continued preparing food for some of the most vulnerable.
"We sent thousands and thousands of baby food out,” Dillon said. “The thing that struck me was the shared purpose. Everyone was there with one goal and that was to provide and to share to people that needed it.”
He said being able to play a small role in this large humanitarian crisis is something he said he'll never forget.
"When a little kid has a hot cup of cocoa and it looks in their face like you just have given them the world you know you have done something good. So what I would like people to know is that it matters, all of this stuff matters,” Dillon said. “The thing that struck me was the shared purpose. Everyone was there with one goal and that was to provide and to share to people that needed it.”
Watch more of the videos Dillon recorded while in Poland below:
