It always starts on a Sunday: hands hunting, collecting, sorting forgotten and unsold vegetables; collecting with patience and good humour these precious discarded foods to give them a new life.
Then it’s the big dance in the kitchen: hands that peel, cut, wash, assemble, sprinkle as much love as spices in the delicious vegetarian dishes prepared 4 days a week under our roof in the covered market. There are also those who fill the colourful bowls with tasty soup every day. The ones who drop off and assemble the food parcels on Monday. The ones who play, draw, throw, box and guide the children in their Wednesday games and learning.
And here, we are not even talking about all those feet dancing and jumping, forgetting the cold and the coming winter. All those hands patiently building the great dream of Cultureghem, all those hearts that make our pots go round and round, all those sunny smiles that brave the whims of our Brussels sky to recreate our oasis of human warmth every day, where everyone can create and find their place.
For the more Cartesian among us, we could also ask ourselves: How many hands, feet and hearts are there behind the scenes at Cultureghem? And what do we do with all this joyful energy?
TADAAAA…and here are some answers that may well take your breath away:
- Since the beginning of the year, Cultureghem has shared 12,969 hours of voluntary work. That’s as long as it takes to walk around the world.
- Our volunteer champion alone has accumulated 600 volunteer hours! That’s like watching all the World Cup matches 6 times.
This precious time given to Cultureghem allows us to
- welcome 450 children per month, the equivalent of 41 football teams.
- prepare 200 litres of soup per week, the equivalent of a good hot bath filled to the brim.
- collect 15,000 kg of unsold vegetables and fruit per month, or 4 Asian elephants.
So, for all of this, we are proud and happy to say a HUGE THANK YOU to our simply magical DREAMTEAM, and to dedicate them this poem written by Maud Vanhauwaert, in collaboration with the Festival Les Voix en Ville 2021.
