Amersfoort / Food & sustainability

Posted by on Friday, June 22, 2012 · 

The city of Amersfoort is active on two integrated fields of interest: development of strong and independent communities, and stimulation of sustainable food in the city and the region. The municipality of Amersfoort stated that the three central values of the city-administration are ‘community involvement‘, ‘decisive’, and ‘sustainability’;

Local groups have established a broad programme of activities in 2011 around local and sustainable food, supported by grants of the central government, that were very successful; then the Amers­foort Region was appointed the Dutch ‘Capital of Taste 2012’ and many activities continued under that banner.

Growing

Amersfoort is surrounded in the North and East by a rural area: North (Eemland), mainly Dairy farming; in East (Gelderse Vallei,), a mix of intensive pig and poultry farms, dairy farming and (Flevopolder) large scale arable farming; in South-West (de Kromme Rijn area), fruit production.

The municipalities at the East of Amersfoort united to form a Food-Valley, with the international know­ledge centre of Wageningen University as flagship.

Most food growing activities are situated outside the city. In Amersfoort, 180 jobs are recorded in agri­culture and fishing for 92 related companies and farms. In the city and its direct outskirts, some small allotment garden areas are contributing to the food supply. 58% of the housing stock is privately owned and 66% of housing have private ground/gardens but these are not highlighted as urban food production opportunities.

Delivering

Most of the food consumed in Amersfoort is distri­buted via large supermarket chains. The HORECA sector is well developed with 392 companies registered as hotel, restaurants or cafés employing 1570 persons but most of them are supplied by large catering and professional companies.

 

| V-Day@eetstee | De Eetstee is an organic restaurant situated in the historical centre of Amersfoort. It is the initiative of a young chef that took the challenge of catering to good food amateurs at reasonable price using mostly local organic products and offering vegetarian cooking 3 days per week. Questioned on the emulation his initiative created in the restaurant offer of Amersfoort, the chef stressed the success of De Eetstee. The restaurants need for organic ingredients caused an evolution of the offer of certain suppliers (e.g. wine) but for the moment not many competitors followed in its tracks. 

 

Public procurement of sustainable food in public canteens is at the very beginning with only the town hall canteen serving as a pilot.

 

| BROODJE van de STREEK | Via public tender the catering of the town hall restaurant is 95% sustainable, with special emphasis local food products. A small market of organic regional products is even proposed in the restaurant itself. Broodje van de Streek, Sandwich of the Region is a new action focusing the introduction of a sandwich/lunch dish of pure, regional products at company restaurants of public authorities.
 
 
In and near Amersfoort, there are three specialized shops exclusively selling organic products, and around 5-10 small shops at the farm gate.
 
 
 
| Landwinkel | Landwinkel is a national organization supporting farmers in opening shops at the farm gate. Landwinkel works as a co-operative, pooling products from local farms so that each outlet offers not only its own products but all the products from the local network. Landwinkel also provides commercial and merchandizing support (i.e. brand, packaging, shop design, information and advertisement material…) greatly facilitating farmers’ access to having their own shop. 
 
 
 
| VoedselKollektief Koppelpoort | VoedselKollektief Koppelpoort food collective has around 120 members. Members can order vegetables and fruits every Tuesday that the collective buys from local farmers. Members pick up their order every Thursday. All members help by doing some tasks.

 

There is a Community Supported Agriculture initiative with 50 members (Het Derde Erf).

 

| Het Derde Erf, Community Supported Agriculture | Het Derde Erf is a community supported agriculture (CSA) project located in a farm on the outskirts of Amersfoort. Members according to their willingness and availability are taking part actively in the cultivation and harvesting of vegetables for the weekly baskets as well as in the collective management of the CSA. Other volunteers, such as overworked employees seeking stress relief, also help with the cultivation. The farmer and the members see this collaboration as a positive and satisfactory experience from the point of view of social involvement to quality of the food. Although the economic model remains below the breakeven point for the farm: despite the manpower provided by the volunteers, the farmer sees CSA more as a hobby than a profitable activity. 

Enjoying

Trends in the population relating to food reported by national monitoring are mainly related to healthy and convenient food though awareness about sustainability aspects is gaining ground. The small share of the population engaged in local sustainable food is very active but limited at the niche level for the moment.

The city of Amersfoort is leveraging on enjoying food as a strategy to raise interest of the population in food and increase food quality expectations both in terms of taste and sustainability.

Two special food related project stand out as evidence of this strategy: Echt Eten in de Eemstad with a farmers’ market established since 2011 and Hoofdstad van de Smaak 2012. These initiatives  have a positive effect in terms of awareness raising of the city population even if they mostly involve a small share of the population, notably foodies and environmentally-concerned people.

 

| Echt Eten in de Eemstad | Echt Eten in de Eemstad is a group of initiatives to promote sustainable and good food in the city. It included Mini Moestuin coach, the mini kitchen garden coaching with the participation of 325 families, some schools and a total of 1100 kids about growing their own vegetables and herbs in their own 1 m²-garden; Smaak van de Streek, a quarterly seasonal farmer market promoting good products and traditional food coming from local producers; Mobiele Keuken, a mobile kitchen to organise collective cooking events in the field; De Boer op visits of farms; Foodtrails to visit by bicycle some of the local food producers; Eetbars Amersfoort supporting citizens initiatives.
 
 
| Hoofdstad van de Smaak 2012 | All along this year, the designation of Amersfoort as Hoofdstad van de Smaak, Capital of Taste is the occasion to organise a large variety of recreational, educational and popular activities focusing on healthy and honest food, with a pure taste, and an emphasis on regional products. Amersfoort and the surrounding municipalities of the region will focus in particular on one product, the potatoes to discover all it’s refined and gastronomic aspects. Hoofdstad van de Smaak 2012 culminates with the Week of the Taste in early October.

 

Filed under Amersfoort · Tagged with