Women on Food: A Movement for a Just and Inclusive Food Future
By AMS Institute
A Collective Beginning
On 27 May 2025, more than 120 women from across Amsterdam came together at Pakhuis de Zwijger to share meals, stories, and visions for the city’s food future. The launch of Women on Food was no ordinary conference: instead of panels and speeches, the room was filled with fifteen “kitchen tables,” each devoted to a different theme.
At these tables, participants explored topics ranging from “Food as Medicine”—drawing on traditions of herbs and plants for health—to “Urban Agriculture and Land”, where the struggle for access to fertile ground was linked to wider debates about ownership, commons, and care. Other tables reflected on “Culinary Identity and Heritage”, asking how food defines what it means to be “Amsterdams” in a city of many cultures. The table on “Decolonizing Food” addressed the legacies of colonialism in diets and traditions, while discussions on “Poverty, Waste & Reuse”, and “Religion & Spirituality” highlighted how food intersects with everyday challenges and deeper values.
The event was designed to feel communal and participatory, with stories, sketches, and reflections collected in what organizers called the “menu.” This document serves as both a record of the launch event and a guide for the movement’s next steps.
Why Women, Why Now?
Amsterdam, with its long history of migration, is a melting pot of food traditions from all over the globe. Yet the city’s ongoing transition to healthier and more sustainable food often benefits its more affluent and less diverse neighborhoods, while areas such as Nieuw-West, Zuidoost, and Noord, where many people of migrant origin live, are marked by higher levels of food insecurity and unhealthier food environments.
At the same time, the culinary expertise of people of migrant origin—and particularly women—is undervalued. Women still shoulder most of the city’s unpaid foodwork, from cooking and shopping to feeding families. Women are also already important innovators in the city’s food world: female entrepreneurs, researchers, activists, and artists use food to build community and resilience. Women on Food emerged from the recognition that women’s myriad contributions and expertise will be vital to shaping a food system that is sustainable, just, and inclusive.
Founders and Vision
The movement was founded by three women who embody the intersection of practice, policy, and research: cookbook author and entrepreneur Nadia Zerouali, food policymaker Loes Leatemia, and researcher Antonia Weiss. Their vision is to position women as powerful changemakers in the food world, ensuring that the transition to sustainable food does not erase cultural heritage but builds upon it.
Methods and Domains of Action
From the outset, Women on Food has committed to working across three domains:
– Practice: Supporting women’s everyday foodwork, activism, and entrepreneurship.
– Influence: Engaging policymakers and academics to ensure diverse culinary cultures are recognized and that public procurement, funding, and research benefits underrepresented communities.
– Visibility: Sharing stories and generating awareness to make women’s food expertise more visible, particularly highlighting non-Western food cultures.
The conversations during the launch event embodied these domains, blending personal stories with systemic questions and generating a sense of shared ownership of the city’s food future.
Ambitions for the Future
Looking forward, Women on Food aims to formalize as a foundation and grow into a sustained network of women driving change. Monthly meetings and annual gatherings will foster collaboration, while partnerships with the City of Amsterdam and other stakeholders and funders are expected to support early projects. These include publishing a cookbook that showcases Amsterdam’s cultural diversity, supporting the creation of a culinary institute, developing school education packages, and shaping a broader research agenda on gender and food in multicultural cities.
At its heart, Women on Food aspires to reframe Amsterdam’s food transition. By amplifying women’s knowledge and leadership, the initiative envisions a food system that is not just healthier and more sustainable, but one that reflects and benefits all of Amsterdam’s communities.
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To find out more about Women on Food, see their report on the launch event (in Dutch):
https://openresearch.amsterdam/nl/page/124906/women-on-food
Or watch the video (in Dutch) giving an impression of the event: