Province of South Holland and the municipality of Rotterdam are joining forces to structurally reduce food waste. On October 9, Deputy Mariëtte van Leeuwen (Food) and Alderman Chantal Zeegers (Climate, Building and Housing) signed the official partnership with the foundation Together Against Food Waste. The parties have agreed to not only support organizations financially but also to provide practical assistance.
This includes strengthening networks, sharing knowledge, and supporting the deployment of food surpluses in the right places. This way, successful initiatives can continue to grow. And that is urgently needed: in the Netherlands, no less than 20 percent of all produced food ends up in the trash.
Scaling up successes
The Province of South Holland and the municipality of Rotterdam want to further professionalize successful projects and experiments and implement them in more places. Careful consideration is given to which approach works best at which level – from individual to government. An important step in this is the partnership with the national foundation Together Against Food Waste, which collaborates with, among others, Wageningen University, the Food Centre, and a network of over 110 companies and organizations.
Many initiatives in Rotterdam
Alderman Zeegers: “A lot is already happening in Rotterdam. With the help of the province and the municipality, food surpluses are increasingly being utilized by neighborhood restaurants, schools, community initiatives, and initiatives like Shareaty.”
Shareaty, for example, supplies food surpluses to social kitchens in the city. Community refrigerators ensure that residents can help each other with fresh and nutritious food. The result: less waste and a strong local community.
Another great Rotterdam example is Het Nieuwe Nassen: a movement of Rotterdam restaurants, food entrepreneurs, nature-inclusive farmers, and industry organizations that together put the food transition on the map. And through the national residual streams platform Foodsource, food producers, such as growers, can offer their surpluses and residual streams and still earn from it.
Sustainable and social impact
The signing of the partnership took place in Community Living Room Studio Delfshaven: a place in the middle of the city where it is experienced daily how important it is to not throw away food but to share it. Especially in South Holland and particularly Rotterdam, food poverty is still a major problem. “The fight against food waste is not only a matter of sustainability but also of common sense and social awareness,” said Deputy Van Leeuwen.
Get involved
From residents who shop more consciously to companies that deal wisely with residual products and governments that help with policies and support: at every level there are opportunities to combat food waste while saving money.
The municipality of Rotterdam and the Province of South Holland call on businesses, organizations, and residents to get involved. This can be done in various ways: by sharing knowledge, starting an initiative, or joining in. Residents can, for example, shop more consciously or adopt a community refrigerator together with neighbors. Hospitality entrepreneurs can join Het Nieuwe Nassen, and logistics companies can participate through Foodsource. Together, we work towards a future without food waste.
