GOOD FOOD AS A PUBLIC GOOD

Good food is a basic need, not a luxury. And therefore we need a new public service that makes healthy and sustainable food the easiest and most affordable option for all of us.

That’s why we founded Mensa Mensa. The first public service for good food in the Netherlands. This public canteen in Rotterdam Zuid offers daily wholesome meals for affordable prices. Neighbors cook healthy take-home meals for a whole week with help from a chef. For kids there are free cooking classes.

Such a public service is needed in many neighborhoods. Because the food in our supermarkets, restaurants, schools and sport clubs is making us sick. And what makes it extra painful is that staying healthy is most difficult for people who have less money to spend. And let’s not forget about the impact of our diet on the climate.

We should ask ourselves one important question. Why do we allow our food system to be fully privatized and commercialized? Since this industry is not enabling us to eat more healthily. On the contrary.

The food industry’s primary objective is to make profits. And companies know that most money is to be made on our cravings for fat, sugar and salt. That’s the core problem: The industry and politics prioritize profits over emancipation.

How can we, as individual consumers, resist so much marketing, seduction, money and power? Exactly, most people can not.

And also, this should not be our task. Good food is a human right and as such, a responsibility of our governments. We haven’t outsourced the responsibility for our tap water to Coca Cola either.

Time to reclaim power: Let’s make good food a public good. In such a way that healthy and sustainable food becomes the easiest and most affordable option for all of us. And because the government is not taking action yet, we started ourselves.

Will you join us?