Free groceries for vulnerable families at new supermarket in Osdorp

From today, vulnerable families can do their shopping for free at a new supermarket on Osdorper Ban in Nieuw-West. In addition, they receive support from a life coach who helps them with their situation.

“You can choose what you need. So you don’t have to take much with you, there is enough,” says founder Abdelhamid Idrissi. He previously founded the Study Rooms Foundation, where vulnerable children in the city can do homework. From there, families come on the radar that are now welcome in the supermarket.

Idrissi: “You can see that many children in the vulnerable neighborhoods of the city do not sleep very well. It is about inequality of opportunity, not having a network, an internship, but also going to bed hungry and hungry for school. Not a healthy lifestyle because fruit and vegetables are too expensive.”

Eighty families

For the time being, eighty families are welcome in the supermarket every day. One of them is Brahim’s family, who got into trouble due to debt and depression. “A lot of people here have debts, they can no longer pay the fixed costs, debts with the energy bill, everything is expensive. It is really badly needed and people need it and we are happy that these people are going to help us.”

The condition for access to the store is that the families accept help. A space has been set up on the first floor of the supermarket where personal conversations can be held. Idrissi: “So contact every day and talk about what you need tomorrow. So make someone stronger every day. So we walk upstairs and have those personal conversations there.”

“Coming is Revolution”

The products are sponsored by various companies and individuals. Mayor Femke Halsema, who officially opened the supermarket, calls the arrival of the store a revolution. “I hope it leads to a new way of thinking about poverty. If you are poor in the Netherlands you always have to prove that you are poor. You are trusted in this supermarket. You come in here and you can get very good products here And after that you can also get help if you want it. That means people don’t have to go through a humiliation and can just come here and be helped a step forward.”