UCI ETHNIC FOOD PRODUCTION

     To make sure a sufficient amount of the V/P's (varenyky/pyrohy) for about 500 diners at the Festival was a daunting task.  It required a dozen ladies working two or three days making and freezing them.  The ladies available for this undertaking were usually older retired women.  The many hours of mixing, rolling and pinching was tiring.  Often they would say, "If only, if only there was a machine that made varenyky/pyrohy."

     In 1992, an ad in the Ukrainian Weekly caught their attention.  A pyrohy-making machine was advertised.  The ladies cautiously discussed an investigation of the machine and decided that Agnes Palanuk should travel to Toronto to see it.

     Eleven inches of new snow greeted Agnes on December 1st, 1992 as she arrived in Toronto.  Me. Tadeuz Szczesny, head of Connaisseur Panda Distribution, met her at the airport and they traveled to Missisaugua for a demonstration.

     The demonstration went well.  The taste of the pyrohy was good.  The cost of the machine was $8000 plus 7% tax and the freight of the delivery.  No samples were allowed across the border.  The photos of the production and the positive opinion of the product let to further discussion.  What do they have to sacrifice if they produce the V/P's by machine?  Weighing the pros and cons, it was decided to proceed with the purchase.

     The first task was to raise the money.  UCI, in 1992, was twelve years old and did not have a network of support.  In April 1993, a semi backed up to the complex of rooms UCI rented on Radar Base Road and unloaded the machine.  A week later, Tadeus arrived to teach us the assembly of the machine and production techniques.  On hand were Ted Kritsky, Ben Makaruk, Board members, Marion Weidner and other on-lookers.

     After mastering the assembly and obtaining supplies, a production staff was assembled.  Those first months were learning by trial and error and lots of prayers: potatoes would not fill, the sauerkraut overfilled and burst open in boiling, good cottage cheese had to be located, space was insufficient, freezer space was short.  But in the end, success in production prevailed.

     The next hurdle was marketing.  Where do we sell them?  Who will buy them?  We were selling to walk in's so we had a weekly sales record.  With that record, we met with Dan's Supermarket frozen foods manager Kurt Sadowsky.  He liked what he saw and our varenyky/pyrohy stocked the freezer shelves at Dan's Supermarket in Dickinson.

     But marketing doesn't end by stocking the shelves.  The public has to learn of the availability of the V/P's on the grocery shelf.  This we did by offering free tastes of the product at the store.

     Having some experience in marketing, we traveled to Minot and gave a demo to Food Services of America.  They bought them.  Then came GFG and their acceptance.  Dan's Supermarkets in Bismarck and Mandan also stocked them.  Since the V/P's are ethnic to East Europeans including the Germans from Ukraine, the market was in place.

     In 1995, UCI bought the former restaurant located on West Villard St. in Dickinson.  One had to have a vision to buy that building.  After an intensive renovation led by Nick Symionow, UCI moved in.  The V/P production occupies the kitchen, the walk-in freezer and storage rooms.  Two larger rooms are used to exhibit the Ukrainian Culture.  A gift shop and office occupy the front end of the building.

     Today people from all parts of the world come through the Institute doors to become acquainted with the culture of the Ukrainians in North Dakota and to buy the varenyky/pyrohy.