As of this month, The Hague welcomes restaurant Instock, a restaurant that uses products that otherwise would be thrown away. Impact City spoke with Freke, one of the founders of Instock.
Great opening party in the Hague
“The opening party was great. Despite the holidays there was still a big crowd of fans that gathered to celebrate the opening with us, that was awesome! Besides the official opening we had a nice line-up with speakers that spoke about the story behind our concept and the urgency of it. We received a lot of enthusiastic reactions. Maurits Groen reminded the audience once again about the urgence of the problem of climate change. We know that it is a topic that is discussed, but still, in many cases, it’s a problem that doesn’t really keeps you busy. Groen reminded us of the fact that we really have to act now. And, together, find solutions.”
Food consumption
“Deputy Mayor Baldewsingh chose a surprisingly sustainable perspective for his speech. He told us a beautiful story about how we should start thinking about the production of food and consumption. And emphasized that we are destroying the planet, and put us to think about how we could do better. Also, he pointed out that it is very positive that Instock has been established in The Hague as a new initiative. And he called on the government to come to action and be more aware.”
Work together with other social entrepreneurs
“At the opening, we were also joined by many people that helped us in getting this far; amongst them many entrepreneurs that themselves also work on social and climatological improvements. In short, social entrepreneurs. Like for example pulp fabrics who arranged our company outfit of 100% recycled textiles, and bag designer Omar Munie who used left-over leather from his Dream Factory to create our menus. , , and Stone Paper, who made our menu card out of stonepaper (read more), all social entrepreneurs themselves creating great impact. Also, we were happy to see lots of fans that have been following us since the beginning.”
Work together with Albert Heijn
“We have been collaborating with Albert Heijn/Ahold ever since the start of Instock, 2 years ago. It started with pitching our idea when we were still working there.
Albert Heijn responded: ‘a beautiful idea which we will support.’
Then we launched the pop-up restaurant, using a small budget. Nowadays we have proven that we can actually create results. Not only in the restaurant but also in the background to organize the process and logistics with the AH stores. Every day they prepare their products, to be collected by us. The commitment to do this every day means a process change within AH, with many involved people. And the coordination and communication still takes quite an effort. There’s a lot of people with good ideas within Albert Heijn. But to get the chance to execute the idea yourself with so much trust and freedom is unique. After one year we got a permanent location in Amsterdam. And now in The Hague, where we ran into a beautiful building across the Binnenhof. The unique location combined with our mission to get food waste on the political agenda: it was perfect. A lot of good things are happening in The Hague, it couldn’t be better!”
Scaling up
“Scaling up is an interesting challenge. Something you created with 4 people you now have to share with 70 people. If you do that right, it can generate ambassadors for your story: 70 young people that are all committed to fight for the global challenge we think is important: no food waste. And so far it goes very well. They are all very aware of food waste and are all interested in sustainability.”
Enjoy Instock
“We have just launched and now we love to welcome as many guests as possible. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. We also have a beautiful event space with a view on the Hofvijver: perfect for a team break or a meeting. Don’t hesitate to come by!”
Food waste
“I can see that there is something changing: there is more and more attention for the subject ‘food waste’. And that is partly because of all the articles that were written on the subject. Most people now know that about one third of the food is wasted. That is different from 2 years ago, when we just started. Still, not many people can tell where the problem is really coming from and why it is such a problem. When you ask them why; they would answer: because it’s a pity, people in Africa do not have enough to eat, etc. That’s all true but in the end what drives us is that we only have one planet and we should use our resources wisely. We want to make people aware of that.
The problem really is about over production, inefficiency of resources, and exploiting the earth in a bad way.
Is Instock thé solution?
“It’s good to question whether Instock is thé method to solve the problem of food waste. It’s one of the solutions, we think. At one hand there is overproduction. At the other hand companies have the wish to offer quality and a variety of choice. We think the food value chain can be extended with links such as Instock, the process can be organised efficiently including the use of technology and creativity. It will change. It needs to.
We constantly look: what is left, what can we do with it? Can we use it in the restaurant? Can we distribute it to other parties such as Food Banks? Or can it be used later and be preserved? . All this enhances awareness as well, hopefully other people will start initiatives themselve. We do not only focus on the restaurant. We also think of other solutions such as a productline or ways to create a market for food surplus.
Do you also give advice to other companies in The Hague?
“We collected a lot of knowledge and experience and share this as well. And of course it crossed our minds to set up a consultancy department and help and advice others. But for now we want to focus. Therefore we have chosen not to endeavour in 10 different activities. We help Albert Heijn in the quest to deploy even more opportunities for improvement.
In short:
What products are collected by Instock?
Can
All products that are allowed by the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority [Voedselwarenautoriteit]. For example:
- vegetables and fruit that have not been processed and that do not have an expiration date.
- One day old bread Surplus meat and fish
Cannot
- All expired products from the store. These products are processed into biogas.
Are there any similar initiatives abroad?
“Yes, for example in Denmark. They started 4 months earlier. It’s called Rub & Stub. The concept is pretty much the same.At Instock 80% of the ingredients we work with would otherwise be thrown away. And we do that seven days a week.”
Big impact
“For me the combination between entrepreneuring and helping to change the system at a large food company like AH is really interesting. If we would we do the same things at a small scale: I would not know if we really would make impact. Now we can really make impact by thinking along with the board of Albert Heijn with their activities to battle food waste. That is fantastic and it makes the job really rewarding.
I personally believe we really need to be more aware of sustainability. We are used to luxury and availability of products. We live in a consumption society. Maybe we have gone too far and now we have to become aware and make other choices, more consciously. That’s what motivates me to work at Instock.
We are not there yet. With Instock we set the example and are making steps. But eventually the entire food chain needs to change.”
So this is an invitation to anyone who has an idea for waste streams: is there a business model? Just start!
Business model
“Our starting point is that the restaurant is self-supporting. This means that all costs that implicate the operation of the restaurant, such as labor costs, rent and logistics should be paid directly from the earnings of the restaurant. The waste streams have little value for the company itself . We add value to it. By creative cooking and serving this in a nice restaurant where people feel good and dine with friends.
We want our guests to become more aware. When they see how good their plate looks: they start talking about it like ‘how come this would have been wasted?’. It often happens that people read the food facts on the menu, and that this is the start of a conversation about their own habits with left-overs..”
We do not receive any subsidy. Perhaps this would be interesting if we can play a role in food education. But for our operations we want to be self sustainable. And we are very lucky that Albert Heijn helps us with an investment for expansion. .”
Visit the store and/or get involved
- Want to taste this story? Instock is located at Buitenhof 36, next to the Gevangenpoort, with a beautiful view on the Binnenhof.
- Want to learn how to preserve your food? Check the masterclasses.
- Want to try new meals? Buy the book: Instock cooking. Lucas, chef de cuisine, created it. It is all about preserving and offers you the techniques of pickling, drying, fermentingand confit: once you master these techniques you can make anything out of left-overs.
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