UAH 100,000 for a business: Volodymyr Yaroslavskyi will evaluate grant applications filed by HoReCa entrepreneurs

The list of judges for the Do Your Business with Kurator competition of HoReCa business ideas was presented. It includes a well-known restaurateur and chef. 

Registration for the Do Your Business with Kurator HoReCa competition will last from September 22 to October 23. The organizers, the MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation and the Kurator brand, announced those who will evaluate the participants’ projects and share UAH 1 million among the winners. The judges include Volodymyr Yaroslavskyi, a GoodWine brand chef, manager and co-owner of the Lucky and Chef’s Table restaurants, and a judge at the Master Chef cooking show.

“As a restaurateur, I believe that a business idea should be significant, have a mission, and create jobs. Therefore, I will first evaluate its feasibility and scale and, of course, answer the call of my heart. There are projects that just need a little support. After all, nowadays, it is important to support everyone. I really believe in this. The evil every Ukrainian deals with affects all of us. Since I have expertise in the field, assisting my colleagues is the most logical step. I would like our industry to flourish despite all the difficulties,” noted Volodymyr Yaroslavskyi.

The competition’s expert commission includes well-known professionals in such fields as food, cooking, and commerce:

• Pavlo Moroz, Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department, MHP;
• Nataliya Shadchneva, Head of the MHP HoReCa Development Center;
• Vitaly Huralevych, member of the Association of Ukrainian Chefs, brand-chef of the Kukhnia Gir and Tavel restaurants;
• Oleksiy Povitreyko, vice president of the Association of Ukrainian Chefs, co-founder and chef of the NAJIVO restaurant;
• Anna Opanasenko, Head of the HoReCa brand marketing group, HoReCa MHP, Kurator brand;
• Volodymyr Panchenko, National Projects Manager of the MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation.

The competition is open to veteran entrepreneurs, internally displaced persons, and businesses that suffered from Russian aggression. The competition will invite entrepreneurs from the HoReCa industry (hotels, restaurants, catering) to showcase their business ideas. Representatives of Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses from 13 regions of Ukraine, including Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv regions, can participate. The application can be filed on the official competition website.

It should be recalled that in the spring of 2023, the Do Your Business competition organizers sponsored 80 projects for a total of UAH 7.4 million. Moreover, last year, the MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation provided financial assistance of over UAH 6 million to 74 micro-businesses.

Background:

“Do Your Business” is a business idea competition for entrepreneurs from small towns and villages. Since 2020, the winners and participants of the competition have started dozens of new businesses in the agricultural sector, light and food industries, green tourism, etc. The competition supported 74 micro-businesses in 2022 and gave them UAH 6 million in total. This year, it increased the number of micro-businesses to 80 and the amount of money to UAH 7.4 million. In addition, 10 Ukrainian veterans and their families won the #Worth Doing Your Business competition, organized by MHP in cooperation with the Ukrainian Veterans Fund of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs. They received financial support from UAH 500,000 to 1.5 million to start and develop their own agricultural businesses. The overall competition budget was UAH 6 million.

MHP-Gromadi is a Ukrainian charitable foundation that was founded in 2015. Its main mission is the comprehensive development of communities. Its operational geography includes 12 regions of Ukraine: more than 700 towns and villages. The Foundation has been providing systematic help to the people affected by the war since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: it has assisted Ukrainian defenders and rescuers, communities, hospitals, and maternity homes; it has supported charitable institutions that care for orphans and the elderly; and it has helped people who have lost their homes and livelihoods due to the war.

KURATOR is a brand of product solutions for the HoReCa community (hotels, restaurants, catering), developed by MHP. It offers a versatile product range for different types of establishments, business models, staff qualifications, and the number of cooks. The KURATOR brand produces more than 100 types of processed products, including chicken, beef, and various culinary solutions. The product range is tailored to meet the needs of professional kitchens.