#bread cycle

“A high-level educational institution in which students study for degrees and academic research is done.” This, according to the Oxford dictionary, is the definition of “university”. Where teenagers turn to young adults, and take advantage of higher education and all it offers. It’s also the period when many take the opportunity of freedom and the sense of adulthood and turn it into a never ending cycles of “social occasions”, if I might say.

 MEET JAAP SÖNTJENS

This month’s hero is Jaap, a 23 year old half Dutch/half German located in Amsterdam. He grew up in a little village near Cologne, Germany where he lived until the age of twenty. While his mother tongue is German, he always wanted to learn his father’s language, so he moved to the Netherlands to pursue university studies. He is a philosophy major at the University of Amsterdam, where the instruction language for his department is 100% Dutch, so we can understand he was able to fulfill his wish.

Jaap, although he does not like to admit it, is an extraordinary individual. While the majority of his peers are either partying or only focused on their own personal lives -which are both entirely fair-, he was busy contemplating the fate of our planet and its sources that go to waste unconditionally.

BREAD CYCLE

Bread Cycle is an organization formed and based in Amsterdam. It started when a couple of friends sat down to discuss what could possibly be done to reduce the amount of food waste in the country, in any possible way. They noticed that small retailers, such as bakeries, were throwing away food that was still considered very well edible. Eventually, they decided to contact said suppliers and connect them with people in need around the city. It then expanded to several places including cafes and restaurants. Volunteers of the organization use the simplicity of their bikes to deliver goods like bread and pastries to soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

As for Jaap, he has been interested in social acts ever since he was in Germany; at the age of 15 he joined the Green Peace Youth organization in Cologne. After that, in 2015, when he moved to Amsterdam, “Bread Cycle just popped up on my Facebook feed, and I decided to check it out”. He started out as a volunteer for almost a year, and then when the head of Bread Cycle had to move back to the United States, he believed Jaap had enough experience and knowledge to replace him. Hence Jaap being the current chair of the organisation, at just 23.

 the Netherlands and Food Waste

As reported by Dutch News, 2.5 billion Euros worth of edibles are thrown away each year here in the Netherlands, with every individual being responsible of around 135 kg per year.

One bakery that collaborates with Bread Cycle, for instance, although being a normal sized shop, dumps approximately 20 kilograms of bread and pastries. Daily. All before BC intervened, of course. 

This wasted food could easily find its way to people who are in desperate need of it, if officials were to get involved. Especially in the city of Amsterdam, where hundreds and thousands of homeless people, refugee seekers and immigrants are struggling to get by , squatting buildings and centers.  Other initiatives which were set up to help reduce this issue, such as Healthy and Affordable, combined with Bread Cycle still cannot perform close to a sufficient level. Due to excessive quantity of food and not enough helping hands, they are not able to deliver everything collected . In a country as developed as the Netherlands, a third of the food is being discarded but at the same time, 2.5 million people live below the poverty line and are battling to feed themselves.

 CHALLENGES

Organization wise, acquiring enough members has always been a problem. Until now, the majority of their volunteers have been students, specifically Master’s students, who leave after a year or two. Or even non Master’s students who leave during the summer. So, both ways they always end up in need of new participants. At the moment, there are 13 active participants. Considering they work with many different bakeries in different locations, and the homeless and refugee shelters keep changing their locations it is quite difficult to maintain a smooth number of deliveries with this number.

As for Jaap, his biggest challenge is balancing his duties, being a student and the head of Bread Cycle. With almost no free time, he struggles focusing on his studies while wanting to aim his attention at the creativity and productivity parts of the Bread Cycle.

 A Word from Jaap Söntjens

“If we use more of the food we already produced we’ll finally produce less. It’s always good to begin with yourself; buy less processed food, focus only on buying food that you need, reprocess food in your own kitchen or even volunteer at Bread Cycle, just start right now!”

Photo credits

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