homes during more than 100 days of war. united nations office of high commissioner for refugees reports that we are witnessing, quote, the largest displacement crisis in the world today with over seven million people displaced within ukraine and 6.5 million to polled, moldova and other neighboring countries. within ukraine, estimates 15.7 million people urgently require humanitarian assistance, including, food, water, medicine and hygienic supplies. an estimated one in three ukrainian households is currently food insecure. and thanks to the extraordinary work of international humanitarian organizations, such as world central kitchen, doctors without borders, save the children, the international rescue committee and samaritans purse, aid is fortunately making its way into ukraine. that task is complicated, however, and made more dangerous by indiscriminate violence and selling of civilian areas and key infrastructure. and as russia shifts objectives towards eastern ukraine, the international humanitarian community may only be beginning to understand the full extent of destruction that the military has left in its week. and the deteriorating conditions in ukraine have had a compounding impact on ukrainian women and girls who face heightened sexual exploitation and conflict-related gender based violence. and i went to poeland, ukrainian and poeland and ukrainian points for assistance to ukraine and observed firsthand the generosity of the polish, moll maldovan people and the assistance from the international community our ability to provide relief and support services for the people of ukraine may soon reach capacity. our delegation also visited a world central kitchen relief site located near the border crossing on the polish-ukraine border where chef jose andres and his colleagues are preparing and distributing as many as 100,000 meals per day to ukrainian families in need. in steadfast and continued support of the ukrainian people, the united states congress recently enacted a bipartisan aid package to provide $40 billion in security and humanitarian assistance to ukraine. i'm grateful that the legislation included 9 billion dollars in direct economic assistance for ukraine as well as additional funding for refugee support programs and global emergency food relief. and commend president biden and his administration for leading the word in near unanimous solidarity to ukraine and mobilizing unprecedented humanitarian response to ukraine. and i look forward to hearing from those in eastern europe whether there are ways to respond. and before we proceed i'd like to thank the witnesses for their testimony today and heroic what they're doing not only in ukraine, but around the world. with that i will now yield to the distinguished ranking member of our subcommittee of wisconsin. >> thank you, first of all, chairman lynch, i'd like to thank you for holding this hearing and for our witnesses to showing up, virtually, anyway, with us today. i know that each of you has devoted a significant amount of time not only for the ukrainians impacting, and for the poles and maldovans and others. and if i'm mott mistaken, you've visited ukraine since this war began and we've surpassed 100 days on russia's war on ukraine, predicted to last 72 hours. and without food, clean drinking water and medical supplies, the ukrainians could be in a much worse position than they are today. and the will in ukraine is bolstered by the work we'll discuss today. congress appropriated billions of dollars for humanitarian assistance, but those here today fill in the gaps. you know where the assistance is needed and you know the delivery routes and the people. this is all sentence and fighting not only to get aid where it's needed, but you're truly on the front lines. fight. russia is afraid of you because of what you stand for, freedom. and russia attacks the corridors and the cease-fire and tools to kill civilians and they've attacked medical centers and targeted humanitarian sites including one of the central kitchen restaurants in kharkiv. and the united nations now estimates the civilian death toll to have surpassed 4,000, but that's no doubt an undercount. and putin with war crimes and you're supporting ukraine and neighboring nations whenever this war finally ends and we hope it's soon, the fight will not be over, ukraine will need help to rebuild and restore. and i look forward to hearing your stories and how to facilitate your efforts. thank you, and i'll yield back. >> i thank the gentleman. now i'd like to recognize the full committee chairwoman, from new york for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman for your tipped focus on the humanitarian crisis in putin's war against ukraine, and carrying out a war of terror against the ukrainian people and killed innocent civilians and destroyed schools and hospitals and brought ukrainian's farmlands to ruin and decimated entire cities. and the ukrainian people led by president zelenskyy, and with the support of our allies have stood strong against putin's aggression. even though the war has had devastating humanitarian impacts and left many without access to food, water, shelter and medical care. suffering most acutely are the innocent families, women and children of ukraine who have become targets in putin's war. already the united nations have confirmed that thousands of women and children have been killed or wounded during the russian assault. tragically, the true number is lightly-- likely significantly higher. credible reports have also found that russian troops in ukraine have engaged in serious war crimes, including revenge killings, mass murders and sexual violence against women. five months ago, the people of ukraine were going about their daily lives, working going to cafes and restaurants and today, those same families are living through a much harsher reality. one they'll likely never fully recover from and many may not survive. those are the life and deaths stakes of vladimir putin's war in ukraine and why i'm grateful we have a chance to hear from some of the heroes literally on the front lines providing vulnerable communities with the critical lifesaving support that they desperately need. recent reports indicate that although vladimir putin shifted to eastern and southern ukraine there's still no end to this war in sight. given everything that ukrainian people will need to defend their homeland, i was pleased that congress was able to come together recently on a bipartisan basis to pass a bill that would provide 40 billion in additional security economic and humanitarian aid to respond to the conflict. moving forward, it will be critical for congress to work with the biden administration, to efficiently distribute humanitarian aid and allies in support of the ukraine i don't know people and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses today how best to use u.s. taxpayer dollars to address ukraine's most urgent humanitarian needs. thank you again for your leadership, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> i thank the gentle lady and we deeply appreciate her leadership on this issue. i'd like to introduce our first witnesses. our first witness today is mr. hoe v jose andre, the founder of world central kitchen. chef andre is a renowned chef who founded the food kitchen in 2010 to provide food to those experiencing national crisis. since then, they've responded arounded world to feed communities in need, including haiti, puerto rico, guatamala, several cities in the united states and now ukraine. the witnesses will be unmuted so that we can now swear in mr. andres. mr. andres, please raise your right hand, do you a swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is nothing the truth, the whole truth and nothing, but the truth so help you god? and the witness has indicated in the affirmative and will be ten entered your of into the record. >> thank you mr. chairman for the commercial kitchen we've built near the border, and i founded more than a decade ago specializing in feeding communities after natural and manmade disasters. we are unique how we work and what we provide. we work with the urgency of now because when you are hungry or thirsty, you are hungry or thirsty today, not tomorrow. we believe in the power of food to rebuild lives, communities and jobs. and a place of food is a place of hope. a dollar spent locally is a dollar multiplied throughout the local economy. and in the organizations we buy lots of food and bring local people to feed local people with a passion and that's ow ukrainians are feeding ukraine with the support. and we have the meals one day after the war began. at the poland and ukraine borders where they were fleeing with whatever they could carry. we rapidly extended into ukraine and across all border crossings not controlled by russia. at the peak of the refugee flow across the borders, there was not real from the u.n. system. we assumed the big guys will show up in a couple of days, but it took weeks for them to establish any presence and then, the-- with nothing or nobody in site and children were walking alone across the border with the phone of their mothers printed in the palm of their home. these children will left alone at the mercy of good samaritans. today, a week after the 100 day mark of this war, we have distributed more than 40 million meals to more than 475 cities in the region. we're working with almost 500 restaurants, food trucks and catering companies in eight countries. we have 42 warehouses. in many of them we may put 40,000 are distributed a day on top of the hot meals. some situations require hot or ready cooked meals and some ingredients, some people can cook and feed themselves. when you consider all the meals being cooked by the kitchens, our partners and people at home, i believe we're almost doing a million meals a day right now. the united states congress on behalf of the american people have been exceptionally generous and these are by the ukrainian people and people around the world who rely on ukraine, farmers. however, i must tell you that your work is not done. it's never done. there are structural reasons why establishing international aid took so long to have in ukraine. those will not change with billions of dollars. >> large quantities are being delivered today with little regard for what the people of ukraine can for or want to eat. there's only so much they need. we have tried to work with the program, but they're way too much outside of ukraine for weeks and weeks instead of longer being inside the country. with boots on the ground we know where the need is. we talk to the community every day, we work next to the community, i am afraid that we're given with the efforts and spending and as the problem. let's be clear. ukraine can feed itself. but they have work, millions are displaced, infrastructure and bridges and roads are damaged, and outages. with working in the kitchen we establish in an emergency, this system. we buy local when we can all the time. it's telling that the program is bringing food into ukraine, when at the same time, the programs need food to export from ukraine to feed other countries. it doesn't make sense. when you don't have real goods on the ground, the decisions are often not the right ones. the current system does not work when people are starving and thirsty in a crisis. we need more agile and effective system to deliver it. and forming a process, and contrasting groupsment i hope you and your staff will work with us on changes that can address these concerns. usaid has an incredible mission dedicated. they can be even more effective with some additional authorities and flexibilities to add much more quickly. thank you for your time and attention and including me in these very important hearings. i look forward now to answering any questions that you may have. >> thank you, chef. that was very, very instructive and that's exactly the type of information that we want to hear. we see all the good work, but behind the scenes we don't have to grapple with the bureaucratic difficulties that you've just described, so, let me just say i'm not surprised because of the-- i think, i think the situation here is extraordinary and we were not prepared for it. however, with your help, with the help of the private sector, with the advice of people who are actually doing the work, i think we can make the adjustments that you recommend. chef andres, as you noted i did need a bipartisan delegation to poland, three republicans, three democrats, and thankful for the participation of my republican colleagues. we went to maldova, poland and romania to observe the refugee situation in the region since the russians launched its invasion earlier this year. while in poland, we did have the opportunity and pleasure of visiting one of your world central kitchen meal preparation sites near the ukrainian border. your staff, including jason kolis and anna were gracious and took the time to show us the mechanics of how the logistics were working there to get the ingredients in to prepare them and then to, in some cases, ship them in to ukraine and other cases and take care of people who were fleeing that country, that war zone. all of us were impressed by the dedication of your organization and world central kitchen's employees and volunteers. i want to thank you for your-- and your staff for all of the efforts to serve and feed the people of ukraine. it really is heroic. mr. chef andres, you and your team have spent an incredible amount of time in ukraine since the russian invasion, if in your testimony you stated that with our boots on the ground we know exactly where the need is in ukraine. i want to tap into that on the ground knowledge. can you describe some of what you've seen in your time in ukraine and what has struck you most about the conflict and the difficulty that we're experiencing in getting meals, getting food to the ukrainian people? and getting the food that they need. that's the important part. can you drill down on that a bit? it might help us in making recommendations to the agencies na are making those decisions. >> thank you. right now we are in a different reality in ukraine. it's not one plan that solves the different situations. let's see if i'm able to explain myself we are, as you mentioned, that over 12, 13 million people between refugees and displaced people within ukraine. with so many people out of their cities, out of their work places, out of their cities, one of the main problems is that the normal social functions of the economy are broken. so it's very important that-- it means that we're there coming from those sites as people are fleeing the war, and like ours, they'll go to try to temporarily, those systems of distribution. i always say that we're not really cooks, what we are, people who try to put the logistics and the distribution, so that people get what they need. so right now we're in more than 1,410 shelters. we've been in so many for almost 80, 90 states, at that number. so we know very well the situation of the shelters. some of them are official, meaning running by the country or by the local state or for the city, or there are shelters that just happen on their own by people in their home or restaurants or their -- or their schools and happens. those places, sometimes they have so many people living in them, that they will not have a proper kitchen to feed so many people every day. so, those places we will need to give them hot meals to simplify the process of feeling such a high quantity of people and we use the local infrastructure. who is the best to feed people, restaurants and chefs. so we use local restaurants, channelling the money that the american people has been supporting, we're 100% private financial, and every dollar we spend comes from mainly americans and other people around the world. we empower the local restaurant community and know the community well, and to the shelters and not only ukraine, but in the countries surrounding ukraine. and northern kyiv, i was on april 1st in bucha, they've seen ukrainians defending their countries, taking over and moving out and moving north and putting out the russian troops. there we began arriving with hot food, but i went to bucha recently, many weeks after and it's changed dramatically, some supermarkets opened in the cities like bucha, and other cities, but people still are-- they're in shelters. in those places we keep bringing hot meals, but the absence of infrastructure because the bridges are broken or other others, they don't have enough labor to reopen those supermarkets, we are bringing back the food that they are roughly-- equals around 20, 25 meals each that we deliver in those communities north of kyiv every single week, once a week to the hour in every location, covering the lack of infrastructure and supermarkets. this is two of the ways we've been doing it on top of using-- to do the things. bringing to farmers where balls of lack of funding or lack of infrastructure and need help with seeds with sun flowers, corn or wheat. en now three times, they'll plant in front of their homes. and you can see right now every single home planted with food that will be able to provide for those families in august, september. for us to do the hot meals, to do the bags of food for families, and then to be able to be giving seeds that they will convert into food that technically like giving them money, is i believe, the way the ukrainian in the short and mid and long-term are going to be needing our help until the work stops. >> thank you very much. my time has expired, but i would like to recognize my distinguished friend, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. grothman for any statements he may have. the gentleman is recognized. you'll have to unmute though. >> okay. thank you again, chef andres, for being here. obviously, this affects the food supply, the both the ukraine and globally. have you seen russia take any actions, i think are specifically designed to affect the import or export of food? obviously i've not specifically seen any russian-- i've arrived on ukraine the last trip by boat. i went the danube river and then able to experience firsthand all the difficulties that ukraine is having maybe to import goods and food, but also port to export grain. we know, i know because we see the boat blockades. in odesa, with the governor of odesa, the mayor of odesa, we've been seeing missiles hitting odesa infrastructure continuously. nickolai, hitting the ports. and we understand that they keep hitting grain silos, and moving trains inside ukraine and outside ukraine. and when they keep hitting ports directly, they are doing a huge damage not only for ukrainians to feed themselves, but we know they're doing huge damage to the more than 400 million people that we know that the grain that ukraine produces is obviously to feed. so this is the way, obviously, i've seen how russia, in a way, is using this war to put an extra pressure arounded world by creating famines in places that we should not have. >> okay. are there specific areas of ukraine where people are finding food is more difficult than others? is there a specific area that there's a crisis in? >> obviously in the places that the russian troops can control for periods of time and then they left and they created a lot of destruction and i see myself in other cities that i've mentioned before. the destruction there was real. and kharkiv, where we are where one missile hit in the train station with more than 3,000 children and women waiting to escape the horrors of war and hereby, the people that were waiting for those to put them out. obviously. the south and not only too long ago and nickolai, only 25 kilometers, and those cities are 25 minutes away from the front line. seeing and you get closer within, five, four, three kilometers and even more what the war is doing to these communities that they are leaving there and many people are going to say, why the people don't leave when elderly people that are sick and can't move and there's nobody that wants to move them or they don't want to leave because they feel they are too poor or too fired and the only they think that they have is that little house they work all their life. those are the places that it's becoming very difficult and i was with the mayor of mariupol a few days ago and we understand the destruction of mariupol and now we know that the city of mariupol is going through a very big food and water crisis, with the cholera cases increasing every day with the lack of food that russians are not providing, with the lack of clean water that the russians are not providing and those are the areas that obviously we're going to need u.s. and international committee to put pressure, to make sure that we can also, even in the middle of the war, we can come in with humanitarian aid to make that-- to make sure that those populations are not going thirsty, are not going hungry or worse are not dying because of cholera or other situations because of their health conditions. >> you must, therefore, talk to people with russian people and how are they talking about the area. i was in bucha april 1st and 2nd and we saw the horrors of the photos and noi what i saw with my own eyes and i have spoke within hundreds if not thousands of people that sometimes the only thing they wanted was a hat. the treatment of the russian troops in the times during the times of interactions, i will tell you stories and even things i could say i saw with my own eyes of people that were shot from the back in their head, only because they dared to leave their home just to try to pick up a bread the bakery was still baking and to try to feed your family, you can use an act. and so obviously the stories are horrific in more ways than one of shooting and the civilians that they didn't need to die, of bombings of schools, trying to escape the war. and cars, they had the names of children in over side and back of the cars. those cars were totally full of holes that you could argue those were shots that russian troops kept shooting at when these people were trying to go from the safety of their home. and what i saw in those early days, bucha, and this is obviously something i'll never forget in my life, but the horrors are real. the horrors happen and that's why it's very important we are there next to those people making sure that in this case, food and water is another one of the many problems they're going to be facing in the weeks and months ahead. >> okay. are there any specific sorts of foods that you have a shortage of or that there is a shortage of? >> well, if certain-- i want to make sure that the ukrainian government is doing an amazing job and-- what we need to be helping them. obviously they're at war and we know that war is a situation. we are trying to reopen some factories, we're trying to tell if they reopen the pasta factories, and they have wheat, and we'll buy the pasta from you. these things are happening. and right now with the russian occupation under war all of that area south going east, we all know that they're big producers of things, for example, like upions, mike tomatoes, et cetera, et cetera, and those farmers having a normal farming season, those foods are going to be scarce, you can feed the world without onions, yes, totally agree. making sure that we use every single resource we have in our fingertips. we're bringing from the outside things because the war, are highly needed inside ukraine. like america will import a lot of food that america to produce, but overall i would say ukraine is fine we need to understand the best way america and international committee can be helping ukraine is not by bringing everything from their side, but is making sure that we keep supporting the local economy, the local infrastructure, investing the money locally, creating jobs locally that will give ukraine in the fighting for the freedom of their country, make sure that we to the solution, making sure the entire economy doesn't collapse and that's why the kitchen is work to go support restaurants, buying from local farmers, buying from local factories that they can produce the food that the people need. >> thank you. >> the gentleman's time expired. the chair now recognizes the full committee chairman miss maloney for five minutes for her questions. thank you. >> thank you so much chef andres, for being with us this morning and for everything you and your team have done for the ukrainian people and around the world, to help other disaster victims. in your advocacy for vulnerable people that you serve, you have criticized how difficult it is for the international community to respond and it's often too slow. and in a tweet, posed to celebrate president biden's signing of a bill in assistance to ukraine. you said that the ukrainian people, quote, can't wait much, quote, for help to arrive and i agree completely. so what lessons have you learned during previous disasters that would let us help ukrainians faster and more efficiently than we have today? >> i think that the big problems have very simple solutions and sometimes we overcomplicate things. i think while we went in, we created a big team. we have more than four, five,000 people in our network of people that are working with the world central kitchen, that this is what would allow to be facts and adapting. adapting is when we make those that we send to the community. because we go every day, i mean, i'm not in there more than 50-55 days. 100 days, 106 days in these crisis and i've been inside ukraine especially in the early days and again, i came back three, four weeks ago after another round of 12 days, and i think in real-time they're able to adapt in real-time. if somebody is telling you, hey, jose, for two months, we're able the next week to take any pack that we had in those packages to deliver with more fruits and vegetables, and the output of fruits and vegetables and more often than not we're buying local. now i would say for food, in the kitchen, we are-- we're 3,970 distribution points, 3,900 distribution points and say that humbly, but at the same time very proud that we know what's going on. we know what the people need because we're talking with them every single day. so, for food, what i would say is now i'm afraid that we're going to be multiplying efforts by now more organizations finally arriving, and everybody bringing and doing something and times i'll tell that you more doesn't equal better. the right amount equals better because we cannot collapse the local economy by giving too much food for free at the same time. we need to be very specific. and i think talking to that their concern was, how do we know that we are not breaking and collapsing the local economy? >> well, those mayors need to that that their people are out of jobs and sometimes banks are not open or sometimes people don't have atm's or they need cash and that's what we're covering. and this is important that the solutions and the actions don't happen, you don't make the decision today for six months from now, but that you, in the emergencies, are day-to-day testing the situation so you know when the people need the help and you know when you need to start moving out. >> well, since the world began more than three months ago, have you observed any improvements and what obstacles remain? >> well, improvements in many, in all the cities that they were conquered by the ukrainian troops and government like in bucha, supermarkets are open again, some of these bridges are already fixed and life in many parts of kyiv is back to normal, but then in that same cities they have hundreds of thousands or millions of people that are displaced living in different refugee camps and those are the challenges. the challenges is that those people are going to need our help. i mean, again, it's close to 14 million people between displacing internally in ukraine and refugees outside ukraine. many of those people are going to be needing all the help they can get and we're going to have to be creative phil we get them cars so they can buy their own food and maybe that's-- the program is trying to put that program for a few weeks. so the challenge we're facing is adapting to the situation, and as they're retaken by the ukrainian government and going quickly to those cities to provide with food and water to those communities. but then watching closely so we can keep adapting as the war progresses because the solutions of today will not be the same ones that the people need a month from now. so it's imperative that the solutions given are always reestablished in the weeks ago. >> my follow-up question is, we prioritize on this committee ensuring that taxpayers' dollars are being spent responsibly in a way that congress intended. sometimes the bureaucracy can get in the way. mr. andres, what specifically could the u.s. do to help improve how humanitarian aid is being delivered while still ensuring assistance is going where it's most needed? >> so, what it is right now, it's funded for these operations, with money from americans, individuals, some from foundations, where it's been in between 1.5, 2 1/2, 3 million a day, a day where we're filling up our warehouses and sunday, that day maybe we don't have the trains or the buses or the delivering. but i do believe that it's very important that we don't double up and that we move quick in establishing from the private sector. i don't work for the world central kitchen, i'm a founder and volunteer of world central kitchen. what we're trying to make sure that conditions proven and working on the ground that they're supported. don't try to support new things of new ideas that want to come and establish themselves over 100 days later when they don't have real knowledge what's going on in the war in the early daysment so this is going to be very important. i don't believe that we can work by committee. sometimes with all due respect, especially in emergencies and especially with food when you work by committee that means that everybody's in charge. when everybody's in charge, means that nobody's in charge and therefore, you with the problem-- i believe that world central kitchen has proven itself it's done a quick, fast and effective yob to be in those places and adapting to the situation, throwing out the plans and that today-- i believe that the great people of usaid, i know many of them and with ambassador power on the ground, in poland, i know the places, i do believe what they need to do is just change the way they are able to make decisions and what to support and how quickly that money can be flowing. big problems with very simple solutions. we are-- this is not my organization, this is not world central kitchen organization, this is an organization actually of the american people and i could argue a porges-- an organization of the world. and this is in the assistance it's our first time but the lessons in last 107 days we've done our masters, we've proven that we can be adapting quick and faster than anybody. >> thank you. and we in congress continue to work to ensure that ukraine has the security and humanitarian assistance it needs to defend against russia's illegal war we must always push to get that assistance out the door as quickly and as responsibly as possible. you're doing a fantastic job. thank you so much. i yield back. >> the gentle lady yields back and the chairman recognizes the gentle lady from north carolina for five minutes. >> all right. i think she may have stepped away from her screen. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from vermont, mr. welch, for five minutes for his questions. >> thank you very much, mr. lynch, and i want to thank mr. grothman for this hearing. chef andres, it's unusual for us in this committee or in congress somebody who has a long record of success and commitment to addressing hunger issues and to have such practical knowledge. there are a couple of things you said i want to give awe opportunity to elaborate on. number one, the buy local, do everything we can in the effort to address the nutrition, hunger issues in ukraine, i hear you, the more we do to rebuild their local agricultural economy. and then secondly, on practical level, can you just describe what the effects of the -- of what's happening in ukraine and how that affects both fertilizer production and the export of fertilizer and the export of grain, to other countries around the world? because i think as we address the issues of hunger in ukraine, we have to be mindful that what's happening in ukraine is compounding the issues of hunger elsewhere. so i want to turn this over to you and i want to express moo my gratitude which we share. >> thank you for the question. i'm not going to use an example of ukraine, but i'm going to use more years of my life to be part of the solution, not only cooking for the few, but tooking for the many in washington d.c. where the senate over 28 years ago has a hunger right-- this is central kitchen and that was a kitchen i was able to workment so my life learning is not being used in universities, it's being used there, watching and listening to experts, or learning on my own and listening to the people. i'm going to give you an example of haiti. i was very proud of how u.s. responded to the haiti earthquake in 2010. if anything, america should be very proud of the aid we gave to those citizens with a massive aid given and as an american, i was proud to see. the other thing is, how we use the money and we were effective. and we always need to work to try to keep doing more of what we do well and trying to prove what we didn't do so well. but one of the things that i really followed closely was, i understand that different country, in this case, america is giving aiden you would argue that you are giving aid and the money from taxpayers makes sense you're buying from local american farmers and frankly, every country probably should do exactly the same. all of this is perfectly fine, but the issue we have is that then in the process of trying to help, we don't think in a 360 degree way and we create the problems. by america and international committee giving so much food for free, giving to haiti in the weeks and months after the earthquake, in the process, we gave a lot of rights. and in that is a wide producing area, nobody would buy the rights from them, why? because the huge amounts of rights were given for free. fuelly so much food was given that we created the migration internally to haiti because people were flowing from places with no food. two, prior to that, they were giving you free food. ins this is a reality and this happens and i was part of seeing it. i can guarantee you, i didn't spend any time and i know i'm under oath and giving my honest personal opinion following those things through years, and feeding haitians. many of them began immigrating and in a way of helping haiti we created other problems not thinking that's why i'm suggesting we need to find better balance. if you want a to help a hungry country. in the process of feeding them we may already be investing in a better migration, having less migration issues at the southern border. and just throwing money at the people feeding them today and then creating the problems puts pressure in the border in the south with people left just 10 years before and there they are knocking on the doors of america and that's one of the reasons we need to start thinking better of why it's better embed money in those countries we're trying to help versus throwing them much food that we create problems of logistics because of airportsen overwhelmed problems. ... send it to the countries that need the food right now. so i think this one is the one i will say is the most important. i do believe we need to put factories up and running. the ones the close of the beginning, the markets come anything we can do to open those is better in the best national security of ukraine. in the process of helping ukrainians with their humanitarian aids we're multiplying every dollar america make it because we create jobs. we put ukraine is to be able to feed themselves because -- but again they have, i have seen the silos. remember i've been in one place inside, forget the name in the middle of ukraine, it's the center of ukraine. there's a big factory we're parting with. they do assist with helping to the farmers who didn't have any cash or way to bite themselves. so again the logistics is why it's important. ukraine has to feed itself but we have to remember they are at war. it's a country that needs our support in spending and investing the money the right places to make sure that food doesn't become a problem. >> thank you very, very much. i yield back. >> the gentleman yield back. take it very much. that was very insightful. great questions and very helpful answer. the chair to recognize the generally from north carolina ms. foxx for five minutes. >> mr. chairman, neither i i r my staff understood the organization of this panel this morning. i am prepared to ask questions of mr. graham, but we did not understand how you are doing this, this morning. in fact, when you started i tried to find out, and so i prepared to ask questions of mr. i think chef andres for his work and for his insights, and i think that is absolutely right to be talking about how we can help build the economy of any country better than -- [inaudible] but i thank him for his work and i'm ready for the next panel. >> okay. i do appreciate that. we did struggle with different time zones. several of her witnesses are in different time zones so we're trying to accommodate everyone, but let me just add my thanks to chef andres for his great work and his testimony here this morning. this was very, very helpful. if of the members any questions or chef andres we will take those into the record and we will try to deliver those two chef andres and get for the answers on this questions, but it does point i think we will transfer to the next panel. i want to excuse chef andres and thank him for his testimony and his good work. god bless you. please stay safe. i know we are operating some pretty dangerous areas, and we just appreciate the work that you and your organizations are doing for people that we care about very deeply. and i think you present the presence of the united states and a very favorable way, and we appreciate that as well. thank you. >> thank you. >> we are going to recess just for a moment