Students at Royal Roads University in View Royal recently teamed up with a growing business to help shape its future. During an on-campus residency in April 2026, Master of Business Administration students partnered with DON’YA Ukraine’s Kitchen to develop a strategy for the company’s next phase of growth.
The enterprise was founded in February 2022 by Janice Krissa and her daughter Jorgia Moore as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It began as a donation centre for displaced Ukrainians and has since evolved into a kitchen brand that currently employs more than 25 newcomers at two cafés in Edmonton, while also providing catering and retail products in grocery stores across Alberta.
The student project, led by associate faculty member Sandy Walker, focused on two main challenges: identifying how and where the business can expand into other provinces, and determining how to maintain its identity as a social enterprise while operating as a for-profit company. Walker noted that the work is part of the university’s Strategic Leadership course, emphasizing that effective leadership involves being influential and thinking strategically regardless of one’s title.
For Krissa, who is a Royal Roads alumna, the partnership offered a chance to reconnect with the university where she launched the business while completing her studies in 2022. She described the student expertise as invaluable, noting that she has applied the lessons from her program directly to her company. The business continues to aim for significant growth, including a goal of opening 300 stores over the next decade, an ambition the founders previously presented on a national business television program in December 2025.
