Loneliness is more common than you think. In the Netherlands, people are leading increasingly isolated lives. The factors that draw people together, such as church, family, and social control, have lost significance. Social isolation and exclusion are the result. At least 1.5 million people in the Netherlands are confronted with this phenomenon. Those most affected are single parents, the unemployed, immigrants, and the elderly. Resto VanHarte brings these people together in a relaxed and inviting setting. By opening accessible, inexpensive restaurants in city neighborhoods, Resto VanHarte breaks the cycle of social poverty and isolation.
Resto VanHarte opened its first restaurants in 2005 to bring neighborhood residents in contact with each other. The concept—the dinner table as a community bonding mechanism—seems to work. In 2010, Princess Máxima opened VanHarte's twenty-fifth restaurant. Resto VanHarte rents spaces that are not used in the evenings, such as community centers and schools. Each restaurant has two full-time employees: the manager and the chef. The remaining staff members are volunteers, high-school and college interns, and people in rehabilitation or reintegration programs. The organization adds vitality and conviviality to local communities. Resto visitor Janneke Klein Tijssink says, “Resto VanHarte provides more than just a meal. I walked into a Resto at a low point in my life. Being around people without being obligated to do anything, the hospitality, the passionate volunteers, the inspiring guests—those are what got me through it.”
Activities
For € 6 (or € 3 for those on a tight budget) people can enjoy a complete three-course meal, good conversation, and a host of activities in Resto VanHarte's restaurants. People of different backgrounds, ages, cultures, and religions meet each other over dinner. Other people active in the local community, such as the neighborhood police officer, the imam, the pastor, and the family doctor, also regularly join in. They know where socially isolated residents live and send them over to Resto VanHarte. The organization also hopes to bring the issue of social isolation to the attention of policy makers and to generate social cohesion and a commitment to the issue. Toward that end, the organization regularly invites local and national politicians and policy makers to dine and to work in the Restos. In 2009, for example, then-ministers Rouvoet and Van der Laan and various mayors and aldermen attended an evening at VanHarte.
Support
Adessium Foundation has been supporting Resto VanHarte since 2009 and will continue to do so through 2011. Adessium's support is being used to strengthen the organization as a whole, concentrating in particular on public relations and communication, improvements in quality at the Restos, and training for employees and volunteers.
Results
In five years' time, Resto VanHarte has opened twenty-five community restaurants throughout the country. In total, 90,000 meals are served to 45,000 unique visitors annually. Five new Restos will be opened each year. The guests create lasting contacts, so that they go on to participate in social activities away from the Restos, too. People from different cultures and of different ages get to know each other. Contact with employment agencies and cultural institutions pulls people in isolation back into society. Resto VanHarte is focusing the attention of the general public and of politicians on the growing problem of loneliness and social isolation in the Netherlands with (among other initiatives) the pamphlet No One on the Sidelines: A Program to Combat Social Exclusion, which it presented to Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende.
Source - Adessium Foundation
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