Image: Rico Montefonte / Shutterstock.com
Large pieces of chicken, half-full stew cans and even a container of tiramisu remained almost untouched. Volunteers from Leftovers for Africa check all the bags to ensure there are no edible remains. One day after Christmas, four thousand kilograms of food scraps have already been collected for hungry Africa.
“Otherwise it would have been thrown away,” says volunteer Nanda Hotman as she shakes some leftover tuna from the package. “People always cook a lot of food for Christmas dinner. Tens of thousands of kilograms of leftovers are left behind every year. The Dutch won't eat this anymore, but it's still an excellent food for Africa.”
Food Leftovers for Africa has forty collection points spread across the country where people can bring their food scraps. And they do it collectively. “That's what I like about the Dutch. We think not only of ourselves, but also of the less fortunate,” says Houtmann. “Everyone ate their fill at Christmas, but we save the leftovers for people in poor countries.”
Hotman hopes to have all the containers full by the end of this week. The collections will then be taken to Malawi, Angola and Somalia: “It's really fun to see what people come up with. A lady just came in with six halved tomatoes and a head of lettuce. To her it's a waste, but people in Africa can still make a beautiful salad out of it.” .
