Vegan restaurant Meatless District is cooking vegan meals for healthcare workers in Amsterdam's three main hospitals amid the coronavirus crisis.
Along with many other cities, Amsterdam is currently experiencing a version of lockdown in order to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Physical restaurants, bars, gyms and schools were closed on 15th March 2020 and will not reopen until at least 28th April.
Aside from health concerns, people fear for what this period will do to the economy, with many small businesses, including the many vegan ones who call the city home, fearing that they may not survive the coming weeks or months. But despite this there are companies and individuals who want to help their local community.
Vegan restaurant Meatless District is one such company currently helping out. On 22nd March they closed their restaurants for takeout and delivery and are now cooking vegan meals for healthcare workers in Amsterdam’s three main hospitals.
These key workers have long hours and come into daily contact with the virus and infected patients. Meatless District’s aim is to provide and deliver as many ready-made nutritional vegan meals to the doctors and nurses as they can every week.
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Although much of this initiative is funded by the restaurant, Meatless District is encouraging people to make small donations to cover the cost of ingredients and transporting meals to the hospitals. They set a target of €5000 initially, and now 2 weeks into the project are already close to having reached half that target.
During more ‘normal’ times, Meatless District has two popular restaurants in Amsterdam located on Bilderdijkstraat in West and Van Woustraat in the Pijp.
Customers can usually get a walk-in table for breakfast and lunch, but reservations are recommended for evenings. Before the Corona lockdown, Meatless District also hosted events including a monthly ‘Boozy Brunch’. Whilst they focus on cooking for the healthcare workers, both restaurants will stay closed for both take out and delivery. It is however still possible to buy a gift-card with no expiry date for when they re-open.
Meatless District is asking for donations to help them to continue to provide meals for healthcare workers here.
