Happietaria selling meal kits on the market in Wageningen. Photo Happietaria Now that all restaurants are closed due to corona, Happietaria was forced to find an alternative for this year’s edition. Happietaria is a pop-up restaurant that is staffed and run by students for a month. Their goal is to collect money for charity. This year’s charity is to help rebuild Syrian agriculture. The board tries to make the most of the adverse situation through alternatives such as the Happie Box meal kit and the online pub quiz.
Resource’s Emma Mouthaan spoke with Michelle Westdijk, PR-coordinator of the Happietaria Wageningen division.
‘Happietaria started 25 years ago as a national project allowing students in university cities to open and run their own pup-up restaurant’, says Westdijk. ‘In Wageningen, it started in 2013. There are also Happietarias in Nijmegen, Utrecht, Leiden and Rotterdam, among other places. Each Happietaria supports a Tearfund project. This year, we selected a project that supports the rebuilding of Syrian agriculture. We were planning to run the pop-up restaurant in the old chemistry building on De Dreijen, as was the case with the previous Happietaria edition. But things turned out differently…’
An then?
‘Then we thought long and hard about alternatives. We started setting up Happietaria Wageningen in September 2020 and took several scenarios into account, including one where we would not be able to open. However, we expected we would be able to open with a limited number of guests. In the end, this wasn’t the case, so we had to think of an alternative. We decided on Happie Boxes. Meal kits similar to the ones sold by businesses such as Hello Fresh, but based on recipes we developed for the Happietaria restaurant. In addition to the recipes and ingredients, the kit also provides access to an online cooking video of the dish. We also offer desserts, ready-to-eat meals by Food of Cultures and appetizers.’
Happietaria corona-style is open for another two weeks. How are the revenues?
‘We will not shatter the record of 56,897 euros that the last edition made, but we will be satisfied if we make 15,000 euros. We are really trying to make this edition a special one, even if everything is “to go” and we are not able to receive guests. We organize online events such as a pub quiz and an online escape room.
Fortunately, there was no shortage of volunteers this year. Many students are happy to support a charity, and we see that students are all too happy to be actually doing something rather than spending all their time in their rooms.’
A Happie Box, appetizer box, desert, ready-to-eat meal and tickets for the online activities are available until 24 April on the Happietaria Wageningen website. You can choose to pick up your order on Dreijenplein 4 or have it delivered. Moreover, Happietaria sells baked goods and a limited number of meal kits on the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
