Food Pioneers Program 2022

Hélène, or Lena Vegan Kaesboerin, makes vegan cheese with a silky creamy texture by applying traditional cheese making techniques to cashew nuts, sunflower seeds and lentils. This method reduces CO2, increases health and improves the lives of cows, goats and sheep. She wants to contribute to a better, healthier and fairer world with products everyone can buy, and inspire people to eat plant based.

Amit is the founder of Mimo. Mimo produces pre-portioned, frozen, vegan, and organic chocolate chip cookies for baking, a product she hopes will make a lot of people happy! With Mimo, Amit wants to help mindful consumers accomplish ethical convenient snacking by providing a high-quality product.

Brothers Sami & Samer are working on creating a more accessible, sustainable & profitable F&B model through their dark kitchen. Their mission is to enable impact conscious F&B entrepreneurs to rapidly launch and scale their businesses through a triple bottom line operational framework so together they can drive the transition to a better food system. They do this by creating the next generation of commercial kitchens as a service (KaaS), combining the ghost and host kitchen models with community services that feed their members’ financial and impact specific successes.

Milton is the founder of Gingerly. Gingerly is a ginger drink that Milton created according to the recipe of his Surinamese grandmother. This recipe uses 20% pure ginger and no added colorings or flavorings. Aside from his ginger drink, Milton is also brewing up other flavors, such as lime and passionfruit, to add to the Gingerly brand.

Loïs founded Boonzaak. Boonzaak makes tempeh from dutch beans and other local ingredients (like grains, nuts & seaweed). With Boonzaak, Loïs wants to stimulate the cultivation of the huge variety of beans in our country by purchasing them directly from the farmer, even before sowing takes place. In this way she can be sure of the beans, and the farmer can be sure of his income.

Meet Fleur and Eva! They have a company called: Samsam Kookt. With SamSam Kookt they organize street-and social dinners to stimulate a connection between people by sharing a meal together. In addition to that, they also do catering jobs. By cooking vegetarian meals with local products they want to spread awareness about the importance of eating local food. Fleur and Eva strongly believe that food has the power to connect people, therefore their mission is to create togetherness among their guests and stimulate them to think about where their food comes from.

Jurre works at an organic farm in Biddinghuizen. He is on a mission to provide people that have a distance to the labor market with a workplace at several organic farms in Flevoland. He believes that working in an agricultural environment will enrich people’s life, provide them with structure and bring them a feeling of fellowship. This will both benefit the agricultural employer as well as the new employee. A great symbiose is created this way!

Salma is the founder of Nomadschai – a chai latte business. Working as a barista, Salma noticed the rising demand for chai, and saw how there are so many specialty coffees and quality teas, but no chai. She took it upon herself to develop the best chai recipe.  She now makes sticky chai with local honey (as she is also a beekeeper) and vegan chai with agave syrup and chai concentrate. All her chai’s are made by hand and with as little waste as possible. 

This is Carolien, a farmer’s wife from Zeewolde who loves milk! Five years ago she started a little picnic ground on her farm called ‘Boeren Pitstop’. People who pass by can stop here for a rest or for some delicious fresh farm ice cream. What’s more, she also invites them to see how (and why) things are done at a conventional dairy farm.

By giving people the opportunity to come into the stables and open the conversation about dairy farming, she wants to clear up misconceptions and give it a positive image. 

Her mission is to let more people enjoy pure nutritious products directly from the farm, where they can literally see with their own eyes how it is produced.

Vlad is the founder of Cupbite. Cupbite creates edible cookie cups and cookie spoons, delivering a zero-waste alternative. Even if you don’t eat the cookie, it is a much more sustainable option than a paper coffee cup or plastic spoon. A cookie won’t end up in the landfill. Cupbite is constantly improving the recipe – aiming to serve Europe and beyond with edible cups and spoons. 

Merijn & Eva are part of ‘Koprol in Utrecht’. They fight fruit waste by making Rollies from leftover fruit that would have otherwise been thrown away. By cooking, blending and drying the fruit, they create sweets that are 100% fruit, nothing more, nothing less! With Rollies they create value from what others consider trash, in order to minimize the negative impact of food production. 

As a farmer based in Flevoland, Jan Jaap is on a mission to educate people on all things farm related. Right now, all his milk is directly transported and processed. He is exploring new sales channels together with other farmers in Flevoland and trying to re-engage consumers via tours and other educational tools.