The shelves of the food bank are sometimes anxiously empty, partly due to the anti-waste policy of supermarkets. Food bank Hart van Drenthe therefore has its own vegetables grown and bread baked.
They are fresher than fresh, the heads of lettuce and stumps of endive that are lugged into the food bank in Assen on Wednesday afternoon in large crates. The leafy vegetables come straight from the soil of the Tuuntje food garden in the Frisian town of Opende.
“Many times cheaper than supermarket products. And the quality is better,” says Wim Oosting, chairman of Hart van Drenthe, the food bank that is active in the municipalities of Assen, Aa and Hunze, Midden-Drenthe and Tynaarlo.
‘Shelves three-quarters empty’
Hart van Drenthe recently started working with Tuuntje, a food garden that grows vegetables for several food banks. Not without reason: it is becoming increasingly difficult for the food bank to feed all mouths. The demand for food is increasing, but the supply is decreasing. According to Oosting, the main reason is that supermarkets increasingly use up leftover fresh products themselves by offering them at bargain prices. “A few years ago we received these kinds of products. But that is no longer the case. Recently our shelves were three-quarters empty.”
Broken furnace
This means that the food banks have to think about other solutions to provide 1200 customers with healthy food. Hart van Drenthe found it in Friesland at the Tuuntje foundation. “We pay for the plants for a small amount and at Tuuntje volunteers and people with a distance to the labor market grow the fresh vegetables,” says Oosting. The food bank can make this investment thanks to the 47,000 euros in support it received from the province last year. “With this partnership, we can provide 70 percent of our customers with fresh food.”
A collaboration is also imminent for fresh bread, says Oosting. The food bank contacted Cosis location De Deel, a bakery where people with mental or psychological disabilities work. “The oven was broken there. The intention is that we buy a new, larger oven and that De Deel will then bake about two to three hundred loaves of bread for us every week.” Hart van Drenthe is also trying to set up initiatives with local parties for dairy and meat.
‘Not with chips and cookies’
Slowly but surely the food bank is transforming into a self-sufficient fresh food store. “We will have to. Occasionally we will stock up on groceries at the supermarket to restock the shelves, but we can no longer count on a steady supply. While fresh is so incredibly important. We want to give people living in poverty a helping hand. You don’t do that with chips and cookies.”