“The most important thing is to keep making a fist, because strength lies in togetherness”

On 4 September, Feedback EU, in collaboration with Buurtkamer de Luyk, organised a meeting as part of our international project Our Food, Our Choice. The reason for this was a petition that active residents in the vicinity of the Jan Luykenlaan, situated in a deprived area of The Hague, presented to the municipality at the beginning of this year with the request for a supermarket. However, residents are asking for more than just a place to buy their groceries. They want a neighbourhood supermarket with a range of products that match the multicultural character of the neighbourhood. There must be a wide supply of fresh, healthy, and affordable food. It must be a place that contributes socially and economically to the well-being of its residents.

This prompted Feedback EU to commission a study into what these residents consider to be healthy and fair food and what the factors are to make the supermarket a lever for improving the neighbourhood.

In the first part of the afternoon, Guusje Weeber presented her findings, and the gathered residents reacted immediately and unequivocally. Contrary to the perception that people in deprived neighborhoods have no interest in food and only go for the cheapest and fast food, there was a climate of great awareness, and even passion about the importance of healthy food. Even unsprayed food was questioned, because our groundwater, ditch water, air and soil are so polluted that it is unavoidable that it gets into and on the food.

“We think it’s healthy, fresh fruit and vegetables, but maybe it actually makes us sick, that sprayed rubbish causes all kinds of allergies. We will take our responsibility if we can afford it. But the government must do this too, they don’t see the misery they are causing by their bad policies!”

After a short break, Liane Lankreijer of the organization Ons Eten from The Hague introduced the session “Design your ideal supermarket”. In one group, they talked about what can be found in the ideal supermarket and what is definitely not (plastic packaging). The other group focused on what the residents themselves can do to realize the supermarket and on the question in what way the ideal supermarket is different from a regular one.

The local supermarket will supply unsprayed, unirradiated food, fresh and locally grown fruit, and vegetables. To prevent waste, the misfitted vegetables are also for sale in the local supermarket, as well as a smaller range of products. It is not necessary to have ten types of rice on the shelves. Voting on what will be offered in the supermarket, meal prepping, discount cards, loyalty points, recipes, trips to where the food comes from and honest information, hiring young people from the neighbourhood as employees and providing breakfast at schools were mentioned as possible added value.

Residents want entrepreneurs to take responsibility. The pressure must be kept on and media attention is a means of achieving this. One local newspaper showed up. The time was too short to go deep into the topics and from the group came the request to organize such a meeting again, but this time in an evening and with civil servants present.

FeedbackEU created a video of the meeting to use at other occasions, both nationally and internationally, to stimulate the discussion on food poverty and the democratisation of supermarkets: