When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, many people in the United States and around the world looked for ways to support Ukrainians both fighting on the front lines and those refugees fleeing the country. For Annette Del Prete, one news report made it obvious how she and the team at Jimmy! Functional Snacks, Chicago, could make a difference. 

“I had heard on the news that they needed medical supplies and snack bars,” she remembered. “And my ears perked up. They didn’t have food and there was no good source of protein with supply chains being nonexistent over there. Some of our bars have 25 grams of protein, so it made sense.” 

So the president of Nettie’s Kitchen, the manufacturing arm of Jimmy! Functional Snacks, sprang into action. The company received ingredient donations from its suppliers, and employees donated their time to come in on Saturday and make bars to feed Ukrainian refugees. An artist donated their time to designing a new package that featured the colors of Ukraine’s flag, a sunflower and the words “Glory to the Ukraine. Glory to the heroes,” a common rallying cry for the country’s military. 

“I wanted it to be a message to them that someone was thinking of them and that these bars were made for them,” Ms. Del Prete said. 

With the help of several partnering organizations, Jimmy! Functional Snacks donated 300,000 bars to feed Ukrainian refugees throughout Europe.

This article is an excerpt from the December 2022 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Jimmy! Functional Snacks, click here.