It has been quite a challenge for local residents and asylum seekers. The reception location has a thousand places. So there is a lot of baking going on across four kitchens on the ship.
A woman from Nigeria is busy with no fewer than three pans. It’s her first time baking it, but she was a chef in her home country, so she effortlessly replenishes the pile. “It’s very easy,” she says. “And it tastes very good.”
“It’s very tasty,” a woman says carefully in Dutch. “We don’t have this in Uganda.”
Initiative by local residents
The initiative comes from residents of the reception location in Zaandam and the surrounding area, called ‘Warm Welcome Residents Gerrit Bolkade’. “It is a residents’ group that was founded when a thousand people came to live here,” says member Elisabeth de Zeeuw. “Let’s take some initiatives in that regard.”
In addition to ensuring solidarity, it also contributes to integration, according to COA location manager Tania Admiraal. “You see the residents talking to the volunteers. English and Dutch are spoken and there is nothing as Dutch as eating pancakes.”
