The smell of a well-filled cup of tomato soup fills the courtyard when the gates of BroodNodig open at two in the afternoon. “Are there two of you?”, the always cheerful Hülya Özdemir asks the two people at the front of the line. They walk in, but are certainly not the only ones who have found their way to a cup of hot soup and a bag of bread.
In the courtyard there is a coming and going of people who would not meet each other if they did not both have to knock on the door of BroodNodig in Tilburg. Around half past three, 33-year-old Jakub* walks in with a warm cup of soup in his hand.
“In my home country, everything left over in the supermarket is thrown away.”
In his home country of the Czech Republic, Jakub developed machines as an engineer, but for this he received a maximum of one thousand euros per month. “Here in a distribution center I quickly earned twice as much,” he says. “I have done that at about twenty companies, but there was always something. I was yelled at so often on the work floor. And if the job is good, the employment agency is disappointing again. I didn’t want that anymore.”
BreadNeeded
Since 2017, BroodNodig has been distributing bread at Wilhelmina Park six days a week to people who need it. The foundation stems from the work of Tilburg bread father Gerrit Poels, who used to cycle past doors to hand out bread.
He passed the baton on to his foster daughter Hülya Özdemir a few years ago and she, together with dozens of volunteers, works for the least fortunate in the city. The foundation relies on donations and works together with, among others, the Tilburg food bank.
No more job and therefore no house. Jakub therefore lives in a self-made house in the forest and at night he sleeps in a tent. The Czech is very happy with the food he gets at BroodNodig. “It’s very good that food is being distributed, because in my home country everything left over in the supermarket is thrown away.”
At this point, he no longer sees himself working at any of the companies where he says he was treated poorly. He focuses on his personal and spiritual development and believes that he will eventually end up back on the right path. “If I develop myself, the world around me will also become better and better. That’s what I’m working on now.”
“It ensures that you cross the finish line to survive another month.”
Not much later, 30-year-old Rik* from Tilburg also walks in with his mother and son. “I’ve been coming here since prices went through the roof after corona,” he says. “At that time we had a variable energy contract and you really feel that in your wallet. Now, years later, we are still recovering from that.”
His wife is forced to stay at home due to illness and is therefore unable to work. “Because I don’t earn much myself and everything is so expensive, it becomes more and more difficult.”
Then BroodNodig is a welcome support. “If you don’t make it, it still means that you have to drag your heels to the finish line to survive another month. Because that’s what it really feels like, like surviving.”
The Tilburg citizen has known the foundation for many years, partly through his mother. “I know that this was founded by Father Poels. He used to visit us when my mother was going through a very difficult period. We even received bicycles from him once,” 30-year-old Rik looks back.
His mother stands next to him and bursts into tears when she starts talking about Father Poels. “It just means the world to me. There is no more beautiful man than him and he really deserves a statue. I have an addiction history and he once paid bills for me,” she says, wiping tears from her eyes. “These are emotional, but also beautiful, tears of gratitude.”
*The names of Jakub and Rik have been changed for privacy reasons. Their real names are known to the editors.