Former World Central Kitchen CEO is on a new mission
to feed Ukraine’s displaced pets.

Story by Alan De Herrera
Photos by Alan De Herrera, Nate Mook & the Hachiko Foundation

An alternate version of the article was published by the Washingtonian magazine on 1/27/23

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine – One by one they formed a single-file line as each dog patiently waited their turn to eat from a recently constructed PVC feeding tube. Secured to a street sign with yellow and blue tape, the makeshift feeding station provided a steady stream of life-saving kibble for these hungry dogs left homeless by the war in Ukraine.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Nate Mook told me over the phone from Ukraine.  “They just lined-up to eat. It was so symbolic.”

Mook and members of the Ukrainian pet relief NGO Hachiko, named after the famously-loyal Akita from Japan, installed the featured pet feeder and several more as part of their mission to help alleviate the hunger and suffering of abandoned pets in Ukraine.

For the last five years, Nate Mook served as CEO of José Andrés World Central Kitchen, managing relief kitchen and food infrastructure operations in disaster zones world-wide. “Ukraine was a huge mission for the team and our first time navigating the complexities of working in a war zone." he says.

Last August Mook stepped down from the leadership role and is now using his knowledge and experience with WCK to tackle another important life-saving endeavor - feeding abandoned pets left homeless by the war in Ukraine.

Russia's brutal invasion has uprooted the lives of millions of Ukrainians and caused unmeasurable pain and destruction. It's also had a devastating effect on domestic animals.

Spending the last few months visiting front line and newly liberated communities, it quickly became clear to Mook that “there was a huge problem around the animals. These are not wild feral dogs and cats…these were people’s pets and they are now starving.”

With winter temperatures now dropping well below freezing, Mook’s team is concerned about the future survival of these vulnerable cats and dogs without proper shelter and nutrition. “It’s heartbreaking,” he added.

At the start of the invasion, the world watched a population in motion as millions of Ukrainians fled west to escape the onslaught of Russia’s brutal offensive. Train stations and border crossings were massed with thousands of distraught evacuees, many of them clutching their beloved pets. But several were forced to separate or leave them behind.

Evacuating in the middle of a war is “extremely complicated and chaotic,” says Mook. “Packed trains and buses often had little to no room for people’s animals, especially larger dogs. People had to make awful choices during a difficult situation.”

Ukraine is home to an estimated 5.5 million cats, and nearly 750,000 dogs.

There is no official record of how many dogs and cats have been evacuated out of the country. Animals are never included in official figures during war time and almost always go unaccounted for and forgotten.

Mook teamed-up with the Hachiko Foundation last September and is now helping them scale out their support operations in front line communities where the need is greatest. Based in the city of Kramatorsk located in the embattled Donetsk region, “Hachiko is one of the only pet relief organizations working in these hard to reach and more dangerous areas,” Mook tells me.

Hachiko’s founder Katya Onishchenko began helping abandoned animals at the start of war when “hundreds of dogs and cats started appearing on the streets of our town,” says Katya. “After a couple of months, we started seeing animals dying of hunger. We had to act.”

Starting last October, Hachiko relief teams began delivering pet food to local residents caring for homeless animals. “We set up a call center allowing people to phone us with their pet food needs,” Mook told me. “With most pet stores closed in these liberated towns, kibble and other pet supplies are in big demand.”

Mook says he has met some “incredible humans” while making deliveries.

“In Sviatohirsk we delivered several bags of pet food to a woman named Irina who spends her days taking care of 38 cats and several dogs living around her home. Prior to Hachiko helping her, she was making grits and oatmeal to feed them during occupation.”

In Lyman, Mook met Igor who is taking care of 16 sick and traumatized cats. “We left a few bags of cat food for him and also installed two pet feeders nearby where more dogs and cats could access food,” Mook told me.

“It’s heart-wrenching seeing these animals suffering. But at the same time, I’m so inspired by the humanity behind these efforts to help them despite going through the trauma and horrors of occupation themselves,” Mook added.

With most of these animals wandering the streets, Mook and his team decided the gravity-fed feeder tubes would be most efficient way to deliver them food on a larger scale.

Highly traumatized by the shelling and deafening sounds of war, many of these pets “are too scared to approach the food if humans are around,” says Mook. “This is why the feeder stations work so well allowing them to access the food on their own, without force.”

Hachiko’s goal is to set up several of these community feeding stations, but in a well planned way with oversight. “We can’t just fill them up and leave,” says Mook. “Someone needs to manage and refill them in a way that’s efficient. That’s what our teams will do.”

Hachiko sources their pet food needs through a joint partnership with the Kormotech, the largest pet food manufacturer in Ukraine. Based in Lviv, Kormatech launched their Save Pets of Ukraine initiative at the start of the war and has now “delivered over 800 tons of pet food to animal welfare groups operating in Ukraine,” says Kormatech spokesperson Kateryna Kovalyuk.

For over two months now, Mook has been building a team of local volunteers who already had experience working with WCK operations.

“With WCK’s operations reduced in these areas, I can now put a lot of these people to work feeding the pets,” he says. “They already know the logistics, coordination and mapping and can help maintain the feeders in their communities.

That’s the big picture what we are trying to do here,” says Mook.

This important work doesn’t come without risk. Russian missile and artillery strikes are still common in the areas where Hachiko is doing their work near the front lines.

“We rely very heavily on the knowledge of local partners and friends regarding our safety. Sometimes we are escorted into more hostile areas by the military and can only stay for a short time. There is always going to be risk operating in Ukraine,” Mook told me.

As the war enters its tenth month, we are “making plans for the long-haul.” says Mook. Hachiko recently set up a second warehouse in Kharkiv and will soon start importing larger quantities of pet food by train. Mook’s experience and contacts moving thousands of train wagons of human food all over the country with WCK has “helped tremendously,” he says.

With no end to the war in sight, Mook plans to remain in Ukraine for now. “I know the important role pets play for emotional support,” he says. “The pets are so connected culturally to the Ukrainian people and to this war.” 

“At Sofia Cathedral Square in Kyiv, there is an installation up in memorial for the Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant fighters,” says Mook. A number of the photos of these of soldiers show them holding dogs and cats. It’s such an amazing thing to see and truly representative of the humanity that Ukraine is fighting for.”

In addition to his work with Hachiko, Mook was recently named president of the Ukraine Foundation, an initiative funded by Howard G. Buffett foundation. In that role, he’s been working with Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska to create a system that provides healthier meals in the Ukrainian school system.

But as rewarding as all of this work has been, there is one downside, he says: “It’s been hard being away so long from my rescued cat, Jinx, back in DC.” 

To learn more about Nate Mook’s work with Hachiko, check out their Instagram page @Hachikoua

Additional reading: Ukraine’s Dogs of War by Alan De Herrera