New Thing is your love in action, inside the former Soviet Union

Curious about where NewThing.net came from?

A report from Doug Brendel to all who support or follow New Thing in Belarus...

Let’s play a game!

Which foods are store-bought?

Our brilliant chef Valery won’t spend a kopek he doesn’t have to.

To serve up to 140 homeless and poor every day at our soup kitchen in Minsk, he grows his own mushrooms, hustles food donations from farmers and grocers, and concocts his own masterpieces.

His meals are so tasty, our “Response of the Heart” team had to put the daily lunch on a ticket-only basis — to keep well-off neighbors from sneaking in.

Of all the food pictured here, only the marshmallows were purchased!

We continue to serve our guests outdoors because of COVID. (On a recent day, our guests received not only lunch, but a toothbrush and toothpaste.)

Five of our longtime homeless friends have died, in addition to our longtime leader The Great Kozovaya.

Unfortunately, in the pandemic, we have to use disposable containers.

Buying another 1,000 every 14 days has strained the soup-kitchen budget.

But Valery and the team are undaunted! The work goes on!

Thanks for journeying with us! More adventures to come!

Much love,

Doug Brendel

(Valery sent us the color photos himself. The black-and-white shots from our archive were taken by our beloved photographer Oleg Yarovenko.)

To give online — click here

To send a check by snail mail — New Thing, 403 Linebrook Road, Ipswich MA 01938

Thanks again!