OUR STORY

Healthy food for everyone

Yuri, a mother of two girls who always think about food believes food-education is the one of the essential education for all from young age.

Because what you eat makes you, your body and your mind

Here in the Netherlands, there are many educational & art events for kids but it seems there are not enough food-related events. But it is essential for our children to know about food and eating healthy.

So I wanted to introduce the idea of "food-education" to the community.

To begin with, we would like to share free meals to the neighbors. We also hope that our action will help some people who are in need of food especially because of the COVID crisis.

Knowledge of food

As we live in the busy modern world, it is very easy to access to the fast-food and unhealthy choices of eating. I am actually not 100% against of those because we all have less time for cooking compared to the simple life in the past and it is also not healthy to try to be perfect parents all the time. The easier choices of eating can be a life saver. Me and my husband also order pizza and sushi sometimes when we are tired. (Thank you everyone who are in the takeaway business!)

So, the important thing is that we need to know how to make a good choice and how to compensate which nutrition you might have missed from the last meal with the next meals.

Cooking can be simple and delicious. But who teaches that? People used to learn from moms and grandmas, am I correct? In my case, my amazing mother, nutrition courses, food programmes and famous chefs influenced me a lot. But if I had a different mother or I had no interest in cooking so no bother watching cooking shows or studying about cooking? I would not know how to make simple and delicious food, I would probably just boil broccolis everyday and get bored of eating vegetables then order food...

We just need to know how to cook nice and simple and I believe that can be taught very easily.

Kleine Kantine Haarlem would like to be a part of your positive food experience in your life.

Our Dream

Kleine Kantine is aiming high for the children's future and its neighborhoods.

Providing fresh food for children and adults who are hungry
Creating a community space where children feel safe
Creating opportunities of getting to know more about everyday food
Collaborating with local chefs & farmers for children to learn about food
Make everyone happy with healthy, delicious homemade food

If you like our ideas, please share your thoughts and feedback to us!

Volunteers are always welcome!

Children's Canteen in Japan

There are many private restaurants and organizations where children can eat for free or with a small charge. Adults can also join with them to enjoy eating warm meals. Those restaurants are often supported by local grocery shops, farmers and volunteers.

The movements started in 2012 by a grocery store owner in Tokyo when she heard that there are some children who eats only a banana a day except the school lunch (warm lunch is provided at schools in Japan) from a principal of an elementary school. Since then, she has been opening a small corner in the shop for children on every Thursdays to provide warm meals to children and people who came to the shop. It is not only a place for children now, it has become more of a community space for the local residents.

The government announced 1 out of 7 children in Japan is considered as "relative poverty" that means they are in a poverty situation against the average living and cultural standard of the country. Some children eat alone at home in mornings and nights when parents are off for work, some just cannot access to food due to the low income of a household. It is often hard to see when children are in the difficult situation since they are vulnerable, hard for them to ask for a help and not easy to get information to overcome the situation and they tend to be isolated.

Japan, the 3rd highest country by GDP 2020 has this social issue and people has started to stand up for it to protect children's future.