The Farmers for the Food Bank project produces fresh vegetables for, yes, the food bank. Initiator Jos Meijers has seen the demand for vegetables increase sharply in recent years. He hopes to do something about the problem with ‘food vouchers’.
More fresh food for people who have to survive on the minimum: that is the aim of the Groningen initiative Farmers for the Food Bank . Jos Meijers (47), director of the Groningen Toentje Foundation, is one of the initiators. His foundation, like several Groningen farmers, grows fresh vegetables for the food bank. Now comes Farmers for the Food Bank with a new initiative: food vouchers. Five questions for Meijers.
Farmers for the Food Bank has been around since 2020. What have you seen change since then?
“The demand for fresh products at the food bank is increasing for various reasons. The income threshold to be entitled to food bank assistance has been lowered, which means that demand has actually increased. And supermarkets are increasingly taking actions to prevent food waste by offering discounts on food that is approaching its expiry date. That is food that previously went to the food bank.
A positive development: people are more concerned with where their food comes from. Awareness about sustainable food production is growing.”
Do you also see this growing awareness among the farmers you work with?
“Certainly, the farmers I know really have a social heart. They would like to contribute to initiatives like ours. But they are also entrepreneurs, they have to be paid.”
Is that the idea behind the food vouchers?
“Beats. We need more structural financing. The food vouchers are actually a kind of crowdfunding, by purchasing one you support our work. We hope to inspire SMEs in particular. They can support us with money – by purchasing a food voucher – and by contributing resources or knowledge Farmers for the Food Bank .”
What is the biggest challenge you face?
“At the moment we mainly lack organizational strength. We are a very small organization, but we do a lot of work. Last year we produced about 30,000 kilos of vegetables. If you assume a daily requirement of 250 grams of vegetables per person per day, that is enough to supply more than three hundred people with vegetables for a year.
This year we hope for double that, because we are working with more and more parties. We are going through a growth spurt, so we need more structural financing to keep up with that growth.”
What do you hope to achieve in the coming years? Farmers for the Food Bank ?
“The short answer is that we want to serve as many people as possible. But honestly, I think you should solve this problem – the shortages at the food banks – differently. You can do much more through The Hague. Suppose the government were to oblige a company like FrieslandCampina to donate half a percent of its production to the food bank. That would make a huge difference.
Anyway, you can wait a long time at The Hague, so we have to do it ourselves. Tackling that business, that’s kind of our work ethic. In the search for a structural solution, we will grow the food ourselves, here in Groningen. Our strength lies in locality.”
Farmers for the Food Bank
In 2023, Food Banks Netherlands sounded the alarm about the growing shortages of food at the organization. The growing attention to food waste at supermarkets, among other things, means that less food is ‘left’ for the food bank.
On that problem Farmers for the Food Bank respond. It is a collaboration between the Toentje Foundation and various farmers from the province of Groningen. The participating organizations grow vegetables specifically intended for the food bank.
Tags: vegetables food bank Jos Toentje Foundation Groningen grow food
 from the Toentje Foundation in Groningen: ‘Then we will grow the food ourselves’){kind=link}