Ukrainian fleeing war brings taste of home to Brandon with new food franchise location

Fleeing the war in Ukraine, Oksana Golovka came to the southwestern Manitoba city of Brandon two years ago.

She's trying to carve out her piece of the Canadian dream, but still misses her home country — especially the food.

"I was struggling to find exactly our traditional … Ukrainian food," and "I didn't have time to cook everything that I wanted by myself," Golovka said.

Now, she and business partner Kateryna Doboshynska are getting set to open Manitoba's first location of the Ukrainian franchise Multi Cook — a staple in her home country, Golovka says, that offers frozen take-and-bake food items made in store.

When Multi Cook's Brandon location opens, it will offer around 70 homemade food items from around the world — with an emphasis on Ukrainian items — and will be the first location in Canada outside of Ontario.

It also marks the first time both women have owned a business.

Julia Krykavska, co-founder of Tryzub, a Ukrainian Canadian organization in Brandon, says there's a growing demand for Ukrainian food in the city of roughly 54,000.

The Ukrainian community there has grown by more than 500 new families since the Russian invasion began in 2022, she said, and it's "critically, critically important" for people to be able to access reminders of home.

A business like Multi Cook can help keep the community's morale up, while also providing employment to newcomers, said Krykavska — on top of offering a convenient food option.

While she spends a full day twice a month or so making a bunch of perogies to feed her family, "I might change my tradition now and just purchase them from Multi Cook," she said with a laugh.

Bringing Ukraine to Brandon

Doboshynska, who has lived in Canada for 13 years, including six in Brandon, met Golovka through Tryzub.

The duo bonded over different fundraisers supporting the Ukrainian war effort, including making perogies and cabbage rolls.

They wanted to help keep Ukrainian traditions alive for the growing community in Brandon, and she hopes their business will be part of that.

They purchased the franchise in March 2024 during a trip to Ukraine, Golovka said — but that wasn't the initial plan.

"We visited our family … and then we are just visited by a higher power and everything, and bought this franchise," she said. "We didn't plan this."

They had just a three-week trip planned, which ended up including "one week spent on the kitchen there, and got trained with all this food production."

Now, the duo are training a team to prepare the food by hand in the Wheat City.

The front of the shop will have a giant window where people can see the food being made before it's frozen. They've even imported some equipment from Ukraine, like a custom dough cutter to capture the experience of their home country.

Gerald Cathcart, Brandon's economic development director, says the city is coming off a strong year for commercial and industrial investment, with permits nearly doubling between 2023 and 2024 — and many of these businesses have been opened by newcomer entrepreneurs.

"They're involved in innovation. They're creating jobs. They're making investments in driving economic progress," and then reinvesting in the community, he said.

Doboshynska said the original plan was to open her business in late 2024, but they hit some hiccups and now plan to open around February.

They'll give people a taste of Multi Cook at the Westman Multicultural Festival's Ukrainian pavilion in February.

"You want customers in Canada, our friends in our new home, to try all of these dishes, because it is delicious," Doboshynska said.