The youth restaurant became a partner of Fit in Wassenaar in 2025. With a contribution from Fit in Wassenaar, we have organized various workshops about health. This is to reduce health inequalities and provide young people with knowledge about health. We have reached more than 100 young people with the workshops, from the young people who also join the youth restaurant.
Youth restaurant
The Youth Restaurant is a great success! This year we reached 300 young people with volunteer work, 350 with workshops and we cooked almost 2,000 free meals. And all this for and by young people! In addition, 16 events and activities were organized for 370 young people. These are all sponsored: Carré, Concertgebouw, National Theater, Netherlands Wind Ensemble and more.
We have had a lot of positive publicity from national and local newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. We are in the Top 10 of Positive News of 2025 by NU.nl.
Results
We see young people laughing again for the first time. There is cheerfulness, connection. Young people help each other. They feel healthier. And they are helped by the Wassenaar community. The student parliament of the Adelbert College teaches Dutch. Business people give workshops on catering skills, applying for jobs, presenting and communicating.
We see strengthening resilience of young people. Young people are more motivated for school. Young people find it easier to find a job, part-time job or volunteer work. This all contributes to our goal: social participation of young people in Wassenaar.
Plans for 2026
In 2026, restaurant De Baron will organize the Youth Restaurant!
But we also want to organize activities again next year. We have sufficient budget to continue with the meals in 2026. Thanks again to Duinrell and Madurodam, who are both donating for the second time. But we still need money for additional activities, such as workshops and on-site activities (such as AMV, schools, living groups) to reach young people who currently experience a high barrier to coming. In the coming months we will be asking for support for these activities in 2026!
We invite you all to think with us about how we can be even more successful and involve more people from the Wassenaar community with young people who need it so much. Would you like to think about this? Please contact Jorien Meerdink via jorien.meerdink@outlook.com
