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Editor’s note: This story was sponsored by U-LEAD (Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Program), a partnership of the Ukrainian government and the European Union and its Member States Germany, Poland, Denmark and Slovenia to support the establishment of a multi-level governance that is transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of the people of Ukraine.
TEOFIPOL, KHMELNYTSKYI OBLAST – (EN) The Russian war has caused great damage to the Ukrainian agricultural sector and has threatened food security both locally and abroad. The partial occupation of the southern Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts, heavy fighting and minefields in Mykolaiv and Kharkiv oblasts have severely disrupted fruit and vegetable production, destroying 30% of the sector’s potential, according to the authorities.
Vegetable prices have risen, and so have imports, experts say. In response, the small town of Teofipol in western Khmelnytskyi Oblast, just 300 kilometers from the Polish border, decided to boost local vegetable production to help avert a potential food crisis.
In 2023, the city received a grant through an international program and built its first new greenhouse, reducing its dependence on harvests from other regions.
“Understanding the large number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the fact that many of the regions where vegetable production was concentrated were immediately occupied (by the Russian forces), the decision was made to establish the so-called ‘Gardens of Victory’ lay. ‘” says the mayor of Teofipol, Mychailo Tenenev.
Planting seeds
Located among meadows, hills and lakes, Teofipol is a well-maintained city with clean streets and greenery everywhere. Unlike the regional capital Khmelnytskyi and neighboring Starokostiantyniv, the city is rarely attacked by Russia and remains largely peaceful and hospitable.
Still, the large-scale invasion has brought challenges to this quiet settlement of more than 6,000 people, which now hosts more than 800 displaced people.
“Since the beginning (of the large-scale invasion), we have been welcoming people from all over Ukraine,” Tenenev said. “Nearly 8,000 internally displaced people have passed through our community.”
Housing and supporting displaced people and supplying Ukrainian soldiers became the priority of local authorities. And as talk of a possible food crisis in 2022 increased, Teofipol officials decided to act.
They received a grant of Hr 1.7 million ($42,000) for their food security program from U-LEAD (Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme), a partnership between the Ukrainian government and the European Union and its members Germany, Denmark , Poland, and Slovenia.
“We won a competition and received support, including training, greenhouse construction and advice from experts,” said Tenenev.
They soon launched the Vegetable Growing Development Hub, built a 500 square meter greenhouse and planted the first seeds.
The first phase of the initiative in 2023, covered by the grant, involved distributing most of the seedlings free of charge to the vulnerable groups in the Teofipol community. The community includes more than 50 villages, with Teofipol as the administrative center.
“We distributed 36,000 seedlings,” Tenenev said. “Initially, people were skeptical about getting seedlings for free, or worried that they would be of poor quality, or that all the vegetables would be taken from them.”
“We bought high quality seeds and got high quality seedlings. So when they got the long-awaited result… they were of course very happy,” he said.
In 2024, authorities expanded the hub by building another greenhouse, financed by the agro-industrial holding company Astarta-Kyiv. Currently, they grow 160,000 seedlings of various fruits and vegetables, including watermelons, a typical product of the partially occupied Kherson region.
Because the vegetables are grown and sold here, it means “the money works here,” says Yurii Melnyk, head of the hub.
According to Mayor Tenenev, support from international partners helps make local communities more resilient by giving them development opportunities.
“They don’t just provide money for consumption, even though such cases do exist. But they give us support specifically for economic development, for projects, for business enterprises, for entrepreneurs,” Tenenev said. “This allows us to maintain our city.”
The initiative not only boosted the local agricultural sector, but also taught locals effective vegetable growing techniques and created much-needed new jobs for the community, which is currently home to 830 displaced people who had fled war hotspots and lost their properties and jobs.
Today the hub employs 60 local residents, including people with disabilities and displaced people.
One of them is 33-year-old Yuliia Tarasevych, who moved to Teofipol six months ago with her twelve-year-old son and three-year-old daughter from heavily shelled Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
She received help finding accommodation in Teofipol, but finding a job was also crucial for Tarasevych. “I was left alone with the children. I had to take care of them,” she said.
She started working in the greenhouse in April.
“I started making money, so now I can go out with my kids and buy them ice cream. Things have gotten better,” Tarasevych said.
Moving forward
According to Tenenev, 2022 would be a peak in development for the territorial community of Teofipol, which was formed in 2020 under Ukraine’s decentralization reform.
The reform, launched in 2014, gives small towns and cities more economic and political freedom.
“Before February 24, 2022, our then newly established community was just gaining momentum in its development. Numerous projects, including educational and infrastructure initiatives, would be implemented that year,” Tenenev said.
“Our focus was on youth, children and community development,” he said.
Despite the large-scale invasion, the community’s ambitions to develop have remained and it has already achieved other “small victories” in addition to the greenhouse project.
Last year the first supermarket chain opened in Teofipol – previously there were only small supermarkets. And in September, locals celebrated the opening of a modern Diia Center, which offers various administrative services under one roof.
“This is necessary because our bank, migration service and social services were previously in different locations,” Tenenev said. “None of these spaces were accessible to people with disabilities.”
The city also created Bibliohub, a hip place for young people, which combines a library with a space for organizing events. Tenenev said it quickly became a “central location for all events in the community.”
Besides making Teofipol an easier place to live in, new projects and better infrastructure also motivate locals to stay and develop the community rather than moving to bigger cities. Halyna Storozhuk, who works at the Diia Center, recently returned to Teofipol after living in Kiev for almost ten years. She says she now sees her future in her hometown and enjoys seeing it evolve.
“Over the past three years, new mini coffee shops, cafes, supermarkets and convenience stores have appeared in our community. A supermarket chain is currently being built and new homes are being developed for the first time in years,” says Tenenev.
“All this speaks of the development of our community, the improvement of conditions and great prospects,” he says.
“We are moving forward.”
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