The open kitchen of neighborhood restaurant Mensa Mensa smells of all kinds of delicious things: potatoes with rosemary, sweet, charred leeks and aniseed tarragon. Eleven women move through the kitchen as if it were their own. From the spice rack between two large counters, filled with dozens of jars, they take paprika and garlic powder to flavor a vegetable stew. A knife is sharpened, a pan is stirred, a container with pumpkin parts is placed in the oven.
Mensa Mensa is a neighborhood restaurant in the Feijenoord area of Rotterdam where local residents can go for affordable, healthy meals. The women standing in the open kitchen participate in the meal prepwhere they prepare dishes with vegetables in the leading role under the guidance of a professional chef. They ‘prep’ meals for about three days, enough for several people. At the end of the morning, participants take the meals home in containers. If you don’t want to cook yourself, you can pick up a meal at the local restaurant in the afternoon for three to five euros.
Participating in the meal prep costs ten euros on Monday and Sunday mornings, but participation is free for the women who are behind the pans this Tuesday morning. They are here through Cultuurhuis Feijenoord, a community center that organizes free workshops.
‘Healthy food should be a basic provision. No luxury. It’s time to take back the power,” reads brightly colored posters on the walls of Mensa Mensa. Feijenoord is one of the poorest areas of Rotterdam. It has more than 7,800 inhabitants and about three-quarters of the households fall into the lowest income class, writes the Municipality of Rotterdam. A lower income directly affects what ends up on the plate. For example, in 2023, one in six adult Dutch people who want to eat healthier indicated that a lack of money makes it difficult to buy healthy products, according to the report. CBS.
Mensa Mensa employees provide lunch in the kitchen.
Photo Hedayatullah Amid
Participants cut vegetables for the tzatziki.
Photo Hedayatullah Amid
The social inequality when it comes to healthy eating was the main reason for Robin Koek (41), business manager of Mensa Mensa, to work for the neighborhood restaurant. “I saw more and more friends taking out a picking garden subscription and ordering organic vegetable boxes. Beautiful, directly from farm to plate, but for a large part of society that is unaffordable. Shopping at stores like Ekoplaza or Odin is completely out of reach for many households.” According to him, healthy food is a basic need, “but whether you have access to it now depends on your income and the market. If you think about that for a moment, it is quite strange.”
More than green beans
The roaring ovens have warmed up the kitchen in the restaurant quite a bit. More and more dishes from the menu, which is written on a chalkboard, appear on the workbench: coleslaw with date, leek dish, and tzatziki. Monica (46), Maltie (66) and Wahida (60) (surnames are known to the editors) are cutting eggplant, peppers and zucchini at a long table. “I enjoy getting to know local residents from all kinds of cultures during meal prep”, says Maltie. She has lived in South Rotterdam for 25 years. Participant Wahida (60) has lived there since 1976, she says.
These are exactly the people Mensa Mensa wants to reach, according to Koek. “We are a public facility: just like in the library, everyone is welcome here. At the same time, we know that food inequality mainly occurs in areas with lower incomes and higher unemployment, such as here in Feijenoord. That is why we want to make extra efforts for people from the neighborhood.”
Director of the Cultuurhuis Feijenoord foundation Margot Paak in the kitchen.
Photo Hedayatullah Amid
For Wahida, meal prep is really something to look forward to. “A few years ago I had a brain haemorrhage. Since then I have not been the same again. After my rehabilitation I started having panic attacks, it was a very dark period,” she says. The free activities for which Wahida can register through Cultuurhuis Feijenoord provide structure to her weeks. “They make sure I get out of the house and am among people.”
Monica, like Wahida, is reintegrating after a period of illness. But she also comes to learn to cook plant-based. “Vegan food is so much more than just potatoes or green beans. You can really go in any direction with it,” she says. Although all dishes at Mensa Mensa are plant-based, the foundation does not promote this. “Every now and then a native of Rotterdam stands in front of the display case,” says Koek, “who visibly wonders where on earth the meat is. The same question often follows: whether we don’t just have a sandwich.”
Many people turn away as soon as you stick the ‘vegan’ label on everything, says Koek. “Fortunately, most of those who initially gave up vegan food are coming back to it.” In addition, Mensa wants to offer Mensa meals for three to five euros – something that is hardly feasible with meat or fish. With a plant-based menu, no one is excluded: people from all backgrounds and religions are welcome. To keep prices low, the neighborhood restaurant cooks with leftovers from farmers: all vegetables that are not good enough for the supermarket end up at Mensa Mensa.
Participants of the meal prep in the open kitchen.
Photo Hedayatullah Amid
Mensa Mensa employees prepare lunch.
Photo Hedayatullah Amid
Second location
Next month Mensa Mensa will open a second location in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. At the same time, discussions are underway about new branches in Zwolle, Almere and Arnhem: the people’s canteen also wants to be visible outside the Randstad. According to Public Food, the foundation behind Mensa Mensa, reducing social inequality in the field of healthy food starts with recognizing healthy eating as a public provision. That is why the founders campaign and speak to policy makers, farmers, doctors and scientists. “For us, the project is a success if healthy food is seen as a basic provision,” says Koek.
All in all, a quite activist multi-year plan. “Yes,” says Koek, laughing. “But we see ourselves more as silent activists. If you want to work with all kinds of political parties – from GroenLinks-PvdA to VVD – then shouting does not work. We try to present our mission in such a way that everyone can recognize themselves in it.” But ultimately it’s all about the same thing: making healthy and affordable food available to everyone.
In the neighborhood restaurant the last containers are placed on the counter; a cloud of steam still curls up from the bowl of oven vegetables. Someone mixes a dollop of chili sauce with the pieces of tempeh, and a handful of parsley goes over the coleslaw. “Is there anything missing from the oven vegetables?” Monica asks. “No,” Wahida says quickly. “I’m hungry.”
Once everything is on the workbench, the women gather around to eat. There is laughter, pats on the back are given, and each participant briefly tells what she has made. “Well,” says Maltie, while looking at the colorful dishes with her hands on her hips, “we made that beautifully together. You’ll just never be able to achieve this.”
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