Groenten Zonder Grenzen

The Initiative

Groenten Zonder Grenzen (GZG) is an initiative that collects food waste, like vegetables, fruit and bread, in Rotterdam and Schiedam at markets, bakeries and Sligro (among others) to make a free vegan dinner for anyone who wants to join. GZG organizes these dinners once a week (Wednesday at Kipstraat Rotterdam and Saturday at Vanbeethovenplein Schiedam) where people from different backgrounds can meet and share a healthy meal together. This whole initiative is volunteer based and isn't substitute yet by the government. Due to the Coronacrisis they weren't able to organize these dinners and instead they delivered cooked meals and the rescue vegetables, fruit and bread to people in need.

GZG goals are;
- Reducing food waste
- Creating encounters between people with different backgrounds
- Make the guests and volunteers more aware about food waste
- Introducing vegan meals during the dinners and via recipes online

Some stakeholders of GZG are;
- Markets
- Bakeries
- Sligro
- Supermarkets (Lidl, Marqt, ecoplaza)
- Zevendedagsadventisten
- Hare Krishna Stichting
- Groengoed (moestuin)
- Municipality

Impression of GZG

Questions being raised
- How can GZG help reducing food waste instead of being a short-term solution?
- What would be the effect of reducing food waste on initiatives that rely on these surplus food (like voedselbank)?
- What would happen if GZG doesn't do anything?
- What does the municipality do about food waste?
- How could GZG grow?
- How could they create a cashflow?