LEWISTON — Dozens showed up Wednesday evening at St. Mary’s Nutrition Center for a sold-out Ukrainian cuisine night, which doubled as a live cooking class.

Two traditional Ukrainian dishes were on the menu: borscht, a hearty vegetable soup, and varenyky, which are sweet dumplings.

“It’s high protein, it’s very good. I’ve had it before,” said Kayla Farnum, who drove about 45 minutes from Jay to attend the class. “I’ve tried to make borscht myself at home, but I wanted to learn some tricks to make it better.”

“I am a chef and I love to cook,” said Brittany Cote of Auburn. “I actually teach cooking too. I’m doing an international cooking class for this fall. I wanted some new ideas.”

Valentyna Oblamska holds out a dumpling as Yuliia Budylo, left, makes one during Wednesday night’s cooking class at Saint Mary’s Nutrition Center in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Three Ukrainian women led the audience through the recipes. What brought them to Maine was the ongoing war in Ukraine. In the Twin Cities, they’ve found an embracing community.

“I came here as a refugee with Uniting for Ukraine. It’s a Ukrainian humanitarian parole program,” said Inna Cherednichenko, who now calls Auburn home. “We feel safe here because we have a home.”

“People from the community and different organizations, they were very supportive,” Cherednichenko said. Her son, Tymofii, attends Park Avenue Elementary School in Auburn. “School was very supportive. He was very happy with the school,” she continued.

Joining her at the cooking class were her mother and another Ukrainian woman she’d crossed paths with in Maine.

“I work at Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine,” Cherednichenko said. “I work with Ukrainian clients and help them with integration and paperwork.”

In her role, Cherednichenko helps newcomers with finding housing or navigating the benefits system. Yuliia Budylo was one of the many enlisting Cherednichenko’s help upon her arrival in Sabattus. “Yuliia came to Maine a month ago. That’s how we met,” Cherednichenko said.

Almost two months after her arrival, Budylo had made friends in the Twin Cities.

“We need to add a lot of beet to borscht because it must be red,” Budylo said to her eager audience Wednesday night.

The three women tell stories as pots begin to simmer. They answer questions with patience and ask each other for help whenever they can’t think of a word in English.

“Our neighbors in Auburn are Ukrainian,” Cherednichenko said. “We are happy with that because you can easily communicate with your neighbors, our children can play together and we don’t feel isolated or lonely.”

“We are from central Ukraine, from Cherkasy. It’s not far from Kyiv,” Cherednichenko said. Four months after the war started, Cherednichenko’s family left for the United States. “My family came first. Then, we invited my sister-in-law. After half a year, we invited my parents,” Cherednichenko recalls.

Her mother, Valentyna, was helping Budylo with preparing the dishes as Cherednichenko interpreted for the audience.

“We had a very beautiful, big house in Ukraine. We had to leave that house,” Budylo said. “My husband’s parents are still in Ukraine. My parents died but my brother, he is in Ukraine. He participates in the war.”

“It’s been a slow comeback since the pandemic to have crowds like this, to do programming like this,” said Sherie Blumenthal, community programs manager at St. Mary’s Nutrition Center.

As the crowd slowly moves to another, cooler room before the food is served, the three Ukrainian women stay behind to keep an eye on the stove and make more dumplings.

“He really likes beets and loves dumplings,” said Janice Lara-Hewey of Auburn, who was in attendance with her husband, Ellery, for a date night. “When I saw this I was like, ‘oh, I think this would be right up your alley. I like different things and it’s not always easy to find different in Maine.”

Inna Cherednichenko, right, interprets for Yuliia Budylo on Wednesday night as she prepares borscht during the cooking class at St. Mary’s Nutrition Center in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“I think events like this are going to raise a lot of awareness about what’s going on and get people more interested in Ukrainian culture,” attendee Farnum said.

“People always say, ‘you are welcome, it’s nice to see you.’ Even in the supermarket when we are buying groceries, we speak Ukrainian with my husband. Very often, Americans come up to us and when we tell them we are from Ukraine, they always say ‘you are welcome, we are happy that you are here,'” Cherednichenko said.

“When I was in Ukraine, I was working at a restaurant, preparing food for weddings and birthdays,” Budylo said. She wants to continue doing that in Maine.

“We just want to make sure people don’t forget about Ukraine, to keep in memory that there is a war in Ukraine and a lot of people who need support,” Cherednichenko said.