Volunteers gathered at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Church community hall in Jenkintown to create a food fundraiser to support Ukraine’s armed forces, writes Max Marin for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“My heart is broken,” said Nadia Skoropad, whose son lives in the city of Lviv. “We are willing to do anything to help.”

The Philly area got hit with a random snowstorm on Saturday, yet the church’s parishioners tirelessly gathered to prepare and cook pierogi, borscht, stuffed cabbage, cheese blintzes, and kielbasa, with churchgoers creating a huge amount of to-go boxes for the lines stretched outside.

600,000 pierogies were estimated to be made, said Rev. Andriy Rabiy, auxiliary pastor of the church.

Many Ukrainian immigrants have been feeling anxiety since Russia invaded their home country, but many at the Ukrainian Church have “turned their sorrow into action,” raising more than 80K for medicine and first aid kits to send to their country. A few of the churchgoers flew to Poland to personally hand out supplies.

“We are going through a roller coaster of emotions and feelings,” said Rabiy. “At first, it was shock. But now we are concentrating on helping out Ukraine in any way that we can.”

Read more about the tireless efforts of St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Church volunteers to support Ukraine in The Philadelphia Inquirer.