Attended: AJ, Balthazar, Bente, Fenne, Martina, Myrthe, Ruchika,
Main talking points: Workshop Feedback, Xmas edition, GZG pillars, Confidentiality person, Donations
Meeting Notes / Instigator catch-up 29/11/22
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Action points from this meeting
Title
Status
Who
Priority
Complete
Martina
Medium
Complete
Bente
High
Complete
Balthazar
High
Complete
Balthazar
High
Complete
Fenne
Medium
Complete
Fenne
High
Complete
Balthazar
High
Meeting Agenda / Notes
How was the fermentation workshop?
- AJ: “It was phenomenal”
- Ruchika: Feedback was very good. Groen Goed people are really passionate about plants – fits this group well
- Martina: Only downside was that only 3 of our own volunteers attended (rest were all from GroenGoed)
- Fenne: How can we get our volunteers to engage more? How did you do this in the past?
- Balthazar: We used to have a fixed number of chairs which were quickly fully booked, so this served as an extra motivation to sign up as that meant you could still join the dinner. Building a community is also important as then coming to the dinners is a chance to meet up with friends.
- Bente: Perhaps its also a question of age difference / availability? GZG volunteers tend to be younger so they tend to have other plans/obligations?
Next workshop? Ideas?
- Ruchika: 1 pot meals – or easy meals for students
- Martina: Tips on how to cook with leftovers people normally throw away (ie broccoli stems, banana peels, etc)
- Fenne: Workshop together with GroenGoed at their gardens?
- Balthazar: That could work but would have to be in the Spring
- AJ: I’d love to learn how to make croutons.
Christmas dinner 21st: for who, how, what we do..
- Available: Nanne, Martina (just for dinner), Bente, Fenne, Myrthe (maybe)
- Nanne is working on a Kahoot quiz, we should ask if she needs help with this
- Other ideas: Candles, 0% glu-wein, live music (maybe Fahim’s daughter can play piano?)
- Martina: We could create gift bags with the dried mango we still have.
- AJ: Create a card on which guests can write an anonymous message on the back. Then we shuffle the cards and add them to our gift bags.
Volunteer Dinner (December 7th)
- December 7th is national volunteer day.
- We decided to organise a potluck with just volunteers, if some guests don’t get the message and do join they are welcome. Idea is to create more time for bonding instead of racing to finish cooking.
- Tell everyone this Wednesday about the change (Fenne will do this)
- Martina is announcing the dinner on socials (whatsapp, insta, Facebook)
GZG pillars in general and how to apply them. e.g. alcohol
- We agreed that we have to draw a clear line regarding alcohol at our dinners and in our recipes. Primarily because this can be tricky for guess with a history of substance abuse (ie guests we receive via NA) and also because there are plenty of good alternatives.
- Ruchika: We should advertise better what exactly our pillars/rules are.
- AJ: We should also updated our flyers at the entrance, with QR code
- Balthazar: We should finish the posters we have been working on with our rules/suggestions.
- Martina: In addition to the posters it should also be one of the tasks of the kitchen coordinator to brief volunteers of these pillars. This will also be more convincing and easier to explain.
- We also discussed if people joining the whatsapp group without having joined a cooking session before. For now its okay, there are a lot of people in the group but that is not necessarily bad.
Confidentiality person
- Bente: There should be a person who volunteers & guests can reach out to if they ever feel uncomfortable or harassed while volunteering/joining our dinners. It should ideally be someone outside the project so they are not biased and can express full confidentiality, but at the same time also know how the project works?
- Myrthe: What about someone from WMO Radar Kipstraat?
- Balthazar: We should ask them but not sure if they can assign someone to effectively manage this for us. Also think it is too important and should be implemented as soon as possible. There will always be a bias of some sort so would prefer if someone within the project can take this on for now?
- Bente: Perhaps Chloé would like to take this on as she is already suggested she could?
- Ruchika: Either way we should perhaps also print out some “rules of conduct”
- Martina/Balthazar: A full rule list might get a bit complicated but perhaps a general statement would be good to put somewhere.
Update organizations to reach more people in need of a meal
- Bente gave us an update on her calls:
- NAS didn’t pick up
- Glow up: number didn’t work
- Everyday People: how many people can we accept? Can they also pick up meals?
- Rotterdams Douwers, want to discuss with us how we did it, want to do something similar. Balthazar can be contact person.
- We need update our flyers
- AJ: Where to bring leftovers?
- Balthazar: For start we can bring them to Leger des Heils, which is right around the corner.
- Martina: Our target should be people who are in need but would also benefit from our community, homeless people are maybe not the best match.
- Bente: Ahmed would like one contact person
- Balthazar: This is a recurring question/debate that we need to brainstorm at the next meeting
- Martina: Voices of all women: reach out to newcomers in the city, rather than homeless people. Because of the social aspect of our dinners and we don’t want to become a take-out place.
Recent donations by Robert & Cynthia
- Martina: Robert and Cynthia have been donating a lot of expensive ingredients lately. Is this a good thing or going against our principles?
- We discussed this as a group and one of the conclusions is that if volunteers require specific ingredients they should communicate it with us so we put it in our donation wish list. It’s ok to sometimes bring your own ingredients (we have all done it) but it shouldn’t become a habit as that takes away some of the “make the most of what you have” approach in our kitchen.
- Balthazar: I can speak to Robert about this, I’m sure he will understand.
- Ruchika: Cynthia won’t be back till next year so no need to tell her this yet.
Fill instigators calendar for December / early January
- Ruchika will be available more starting next year
- Fenne is flexible and can be backup if a spot isn’t filled
- AJ will be “living his life” in Egypt / Turkey for the next two months
- We still need Instigators to sign up for the week before Christmas.
- Fenne will reach out to Tarik and find out what he is up to.
Points for next meeting
- Central Contact for Ahmed, are there any alternatives
- AJ: Leftover meals after dinner, we need boxes.
