27-12-2023Barbara Koeven© Nieuwspaal
Photo: Ryco Montefont / Shutterstock.com
Large pieces of chicken, half-full cans of ragout and even an almost untouched container of tiramisu. Volunteers from the Leftovers for Africa campaign check all bags for edible remains. One day after Christmas, four thousand kilos of leftovers have already been collected for starving Africa.
“Otherwise this would have just been thrown away,” says volunteer Nanda Houtman as she scrapes some leftover tuna from the packaging. “People always cook way too much for Christmas dinner. Tens of thousands of kilos of leftovers are left over every year. The Dutch will no longer eat this, but it is still excellent food for Africa.”
Leftovers for Africa has forty collection points spread across the country where people can bring their leftovers. And they do that en masse. “That’s what I like about the Dutch. That we not only think about ourselves, but also about people who are less fortunate,” says Houtman. “Everyone ate their fill at Christmas, but we save the leftovers for people in poor countries.”
Houtman hopes that the containers will all be full by the end of this week. The cliques will then be transported to Malawi, Angola and Somalia: “It is really heart-warming to see what people are coming up with. A lady just came with six half tomatoes and a head of limp lettuce. To her it is waste, but the people in Africa can still make a beautiful salad from it.”
2023-12-27 15:12:38
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