Japanese Volunteer Fuminori Tsuchiko Raises Funds Every Weekend in Kharkiv Downtown to Feed Locals in His Café

On weekends, he goes to Shevchenko Garden in Kharkiv to talk to people and raise money for his Fumi Cafe.

The money will be allocated to buy the necessary food and supplies to feed Kharkiv residents for free.

FuMi Caffe is located in Saltivka, near Heriov Pratsi metro station. Fuminori rents space at a local market. The menu includes soups, borscht, cereals, pasta, meat, and pastries: pies, buns, garlic bread, and tea.

Who is Fuminori?

Fuminori Tsuchiko, 75, is a Japanese volunteer who came to Ukraine during the great war outbreak to help those who were forced to live in the Kharkiv subway, hiding from shelling. He lived with the people in the subway for some time, buying and distributing food packages and entertaining children.

Then the man decided to sell his house in Japan and move to Saltivka in Kharkiv. With the help of philanthropists from Japan and Ukraine, he opened a volunteer café, where he still serves hot lunches to locals for free.

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President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave an award “National Legend of Ukraine” to a Japanese volunteer, Fuminori Tsuchiko. He came to Kharkiv at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion and started cooking free meals for people.