Taste Before You Waste Foodcycle Market Returns

From the 1st of May, Taste Before You Waste will be organising a Foodcycle Market at the Mahatma Ghandi Garden every Saturday from 11:00-13:00 hrs (if allowed).

Taste Before You Waste is a non-profit, grassroots organisation aiming to tackle consumer food waste in Amsterdam. We hope to educate and empower through hosting wasteless dinners, running workshops, and curating a cultural programme.

However, this last year has been challenging with the restrictions forcing us to explore new ways of functioning without our physical events. We have, thanks to our lovely volunteers, been able to continue rescuing food every single day from the Javastraat. However, we have been missing getting to engage with the wider public, especially within the plantage neighbourhood where our home base, Dokhuis Galerie, is located. So last Saturday we decided to run a trial Foodcycle market in the hopes of reconnecting with our wider community and raising awareness of the issue of food waste in the city.

The concept of our Foodcycle market is simple. Instead of it going into the bin, surplus food from various food shops and bakeries is collected and redistributed to the public. The aim is to change attitudes with regards to what is viewed as ‘waste’, showing how a lot of what is thrown away still has value. While the vegetables may be a little bruised or damaged and the bread a day old, it was all still edible and delicious. The Foodcycle market is, like all our other events, donation-based, meaning donations are welcome but never obligatory. We want our events to be open to everyone, regardless of their financial situation.

The trial market was a success! Starting from 9am, our bakfiets was out on the streets collecting the available surplus. After two trips, we had boxes and boxes of vegetables, as well as multiple bags of loaves and pastries. Not only did we have enough for the market, we were able to donate a sizable amount to De Regenboog Groep.

As soon as we were set up, we had people stopping. Some had already heard of Taste Before You Waste, but for many this was the first time they had come across us. Most were shocked by the amount of food surplus we were able to collect from a single street on a single morning, as well as the range and quality of the items we had.

The most enjoyable part of hosting the market was the conversations we had. One man told us about his previous experience with climate activist group Reclaim the Power at Heathrow airport, UK, while another told us about his wife’s business using rescued fruit to make chutneys and jams. We also had multiple discussions about how to cook the different items on offer, with the bitter melons and Jerusalem artichokes inspiring the most comments and hopefully contributing to some exciting meals.

We had a lovely time and cannot wait to start running the market regularly come may! We hope to see you there.