A movement to minimise food waste

The journey of I CHANGE started in December 2015, when we organised a food waste pop-up restaurant in our store LU-ST. When I picked up the food waste from many different suppliers my whole being was in tears. Never before had I seen such big amounts of waste, pallets full of fresh food was thrown in containers because of the most stupid reasons. The food we gathered was prepared by professional chefs who volunteered to prepare a creative four course dinner with these rescued products. For a few days we renovated our store into a restaurant and 60 people per evening enjoyed a delicious dinner combined with cabaret and live music. At the end of the evening the guests donated what they wanted and of the total donated amount we bought products for people from the local food bank. 

We repeated this event a few times in the year, mostly because as well as the chefs as the visitors were begging for another ‘Taste the waste diner’. This event touched me from the beginning to the end and activated my research skills to do a deep dive into the food system. I needed to know how it is possible that so much food gets wasted, how this system works and where does it go wrong?

I discovered that worldwide we waste around one third of the food production, this happens in all chains of the food system but mostly in the beginning (producers) and at the end (consumers). While more information came to me I realised that it is not only the waste of a product, but also the waste of energy of the farmer, the land, the pollution through transport, the energy used for cooling and cooking. And then realising how much pesticides are used for food that will never be eaten. 

While diving into the food system the problem became bigger and bigger. The amount of waste was the result of a whole toxic system that did not make any sense to me. The more I learned about this system, the less I wanted to eat. I realised how hard it is to find food that resonates with my inner values, that is produced in harmony with nature and contributes to the health of our inner and outer nature. While my consciousness was widening my eating patterns changed and I saw my surroundings changing as well. My conscious steps were inspiring them to take steps as well. 

During these years I was asked to speak and organise diners at different events and festivals, to bring consciousness about food waste. This led me to a meeting with the municipality and the head of the local bank. They told me not to make any business plans, but they just wanted to hear my truth. If I was able share that truth in physical form, they would help me to make that happen!

“Just be you”

This has been a very important moment in my life. The words they spoke; “Just be you”, resonated deeply and activated a strong force inside of me. Within one night I wrote a vision document about a movement to minimise food waste and make the food system more sustainable. The core line is: be the change you wish to see in the world. And by feeling good about your own changes, you inspire others to change as well. The physical form of this vision was a food hub with a food waste restaurant, home gardens and many events to bring consciousness. 

That week I had a meeting with the bank director who asked me; “what do you need?”, “what else do you need?”, and “let me know whenever you need something else.” A few days later I had a similar meeting with the head of the municipality. From that moment on a huge rollercoaster started.

Within two weeks there was a donated budget of 100.000 euro, a piece of land within the centre of the city and a foundation in creation. I jumped into this adventure with full trust and confidence, while feeling a strong soul mission pouring through my veins. Convinced that this was my life’s purpose, I gave everything to bring this project into manifestation. 

A team formed itself around the project and we started a crowdfunding campaign to complete the total budget that was needed for the Food Hub. This campaign brought beautiful events in collaboration with local restaurants, theatre and a local concert hall. I CHANGE sprouted out like a rocket, companies like IKEA contacted us with the question if they could do a fundraising campaign for us to support our project. Every moment of this period was a magical expression of synchronicity. 

Until I needed to learn an important lesson of vision manifestation… 

While writing the vision I saw the food hub through my inner eye and I was convinced that what I saw was what needed to be manifested. With that I pushed the vision in a fixed form where the energy was not free anymore, so energy started to stagnate. The crowdfunding became the most stressful period of my life, where it became very hard to stay connected with the team and be open to other forms of creation. My mind was set up and my determination was strong, so I kept on pushing until the crowdfunding failed and we did not achieve our goal. We worked with a crowdfunding platform, our goal was 100.000 euro and we raised 83.000. The rules of the platform were that when not achieving the goal, every investor would get its money back. 

So we ended up with a lot of support, publicity and a big crowd but without the money that was needed. Even that could not withhold us from building the hub. We adjusted the plan, made the hub smaller and received many building materials and furniture from partner companies. We started building with our own hands and every day a new volunteer appeared. This was the moment when synchronicity came back in the project again. Energy started to flow, I gave the team and volunteers more and more freedom to express themselves and together we created a strong energy bubble on a cross road in the city; our own oasis. 

Volunteers kept on arriving, all wanting to be a part of creating something good in the world. While people arrived I started to isolate myself more. I felt the weight of the project on my shoulders, felt uncomfortable with all the eyes that were focussed on me and was struggling with the big gap between my values and the system where we needed to operate in. 

I CHANGE has been a project where I could express all my talents to the fullest and met all my challenges in equal amounts. It was a hurricane of inner and outer processes which after a year of covid challenges brought me in a burn out. I gave everything to this project, but now it was time to give everything to myself. In half a year we found new shoulders and handed over the project to a new team. And I moved to Damanhur in Italy and took all the time needed to heal and integrate the lessons this adventure taught me.

Most of the photo's are made by Marianne Q photography

Podcast: https://youtu.be/wQbMLvZ7D_o