“I was working at the vegetable department at Marqt when Myrthe from Groenten Zonder Grenzen came to ask if we would like to contribute our leftovers to their initiative. At that time I was already looking for a way to get rid of our waste-streams.

When I was young I often went to work with my mother at the Center for Services, where I eventually worked for a while. There help was offered to all kinds of people, including homeless people. This is how I grew up, with the knowledge that there is also a big underlying part of society that can always use food. Because of this I already realised that it is a shame to throw things away, a waste of the energy that has been put into it and a waste of the opportunity to give it to someone who needs it.

Groenten Zonder Grenzen was therefore a great initiative to work with but it took several months before I was able to join their dinners myself. As a child I used to play at the Community Center at the Kipstraat, where Groenten Zonder Grenzen now organises its dinners, and now I am there every week to provide food for people who need it.

I have been active in collecting and cooking food at Groenten Zonder Grenzen for over two years now, and have also taken on a coordinating role. That also brought me to personal insights. I have been working in retail for fifteen years, from small grocery shops to Marqt and now Albert Heijn. More and more I realise that a commercial approach comes with great losses, for example in the field of food waste. That’s the beauty of the group, there are a lot of idealists among them, who are thinking about how we can improve our society. One can learn a lot from that.

This also contributed to my decision to start a course in Integrative Teaching. Ultimately that is what I like the most, guiding people and helping them further. “