Retired Lexington police sergeant spreads ‘hope and joy’ in Ukraine — with pizzas

Retired Lexington police Sgt. Joan Root has traveled to Ukraine three times since the Russian invasion, joining a volunteer group that provides pizza food trucks and a few hours of music, games and dancing to families displaced inside the country.

“It’s... just a little break to give them hope and joy and let them know there’s people all over the world that have not forgotten them,” said Root.

Root’s work as a police detective included burglary, the Vice Unit and the Crimes Against Children division. She was a Lexington police officer for 23 years before she retired in 2005. Root then went back to school to get a Catholic Studies degree and became a director of youth and young adult ministry for the Catholic Diocese of Lexington.

When the war started, Root said she was horrified.

Her father had been a child refugee in World War II. When bombing started in London, he and his sister were sent on a ship to the United States.

Watching news reports about the refugees struck a chord with her.

“I just really felt a call to do something beyond just praying for the situation, something tangible,” she said. “And I said, ‘Lord, if you want me to do this, open a door and I’ll walk through it, but I’m not gonna kick a door open.’”

Then she saw a March 2022 Herald-Leader article about a Georgetown couple, Robert and Linda Cornett, who went to Poland on their own to help Ukranian refugees fleeing the invasion. Root connected with the Cornetts and asked about opportunities to help refugees.

Though them, she made some connections that led her to a philanthropic group from Great Britain called Siobhan’s Trust.

Siobhan’s Trust’s mission is to provide food, including pizza, and practical support to the huge number of internally displaced Ukrainians traumatized by the Russian invasion, according to its website.

The group has food trucks moving across the whole country, from bases in Lviv and Zaporizhzhia.

They can feed up to 4,000 refugees per day from six mobile kitchens.

“Hungry families are fed, and whilst pizzas are cooked, music is played, there is dancing and balls are thrown and kicked around with the children,” said a statement on the group’s website.

“This is an opportunity for our wonderful volunteers to engage, listen, sing, laugh, cry, support and show love towards people who are endlessly scared and anxious,” the website said. “They are displaced, on constant alert, worn down by war, exhausted and fearful of the future.“

‘Everybody loves pizza’

The pizzas, which are frozen, are transported in freezer vans and cooked in pizza ovens on site, Root said.

“Everybody loves pizza,” said Root.

Root says she’s never felt unsafe when traveling to orphanages, military hospitals, campgrounds and shelters, even though she often hears sirens to indicate danger and might have to retreat to a basement.

The displaced Ukranians are so grateful “that people have come from all over the world, just to spend time with them, to laugh with them, to dance with them, to cry with them, to serve them pizza,” said Root.

Children give them drawings. Adults give them fruit or vegetables from the garden and invite them to come back for coffee.

The Washington Post recently reported that every Ukrainian’s life has changed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion one year ago.

“They have learned to survive and support each other under extreme circumstances in bomb shelters and hospitals, destroyed apartment complexes and ruined marketplaces,“ the newspaper reported.

For the most part, Root spends her own money for the trips.

Siobhan’s Trust is committed to continuing their mission in Ukraine as long as its needed, she said. Root is hoping to return to work with the group in early fall.

“I want to go back,” she said.