The bitter thing about the whole situation is that Ecoring is trying to attract young people and introduce them to nature. “We want to bring lasting change to society,” Post explains. “We believe that you should do this together with young and old, by eating together, making music and organizing events together.”
Fruits and vegetables
The foundation rents about half a hectare of land for this purpose, on which vegetables and fruit are grown. Post: “About a hundred families from the neighborhood can come and harvest their own meal here 36 weeks a year. We play an important role in the neighborhood, we really want to build a community here.”
Ecoring would like to offer young people a place where they can chill, says Raul. “And that went well for a long time. When we asked them to clean up their mess, it was done neatly. But at a certain point this place became popular among young people we don’t know at all. There is little social control here, so things can go wrong.”
Irritated young people
Head gardener Damian: “There are no more youth clubs in Haarlem. Young people are hunted down. And you may want to protect them by banning alcohol for people under the age of eighteen, but that also means they have nowhere to go to have a bit of fun. At the picking garden “Next door, everything was destroyed last week. Then they also lit a fire: terrifying. Suppose they do that here and that plastic catches fire. Then they could suffer enormous wounds.”