The pop-up restaurant Happietaria was set to open at the beginning of May when issues concerning the location of the restaurant arose. Two weeks later the charity-driven restaurant is finally ready to welcome students and other costumers. The doors will be first opened next week, Tuesday, May 17, at the new location in the West of Rotterdam, close to the historic site of Delfshaven.
A troubled start
“Every year, finding a location for the restaurant is problematic.” says Christine Slings, PR manager at Happietaria Rotterdam. According to Christine this is due to a lack of funds “Every year, there is a lot of negotiations going on regarding the location. Most of them turn out to be unsuccessful. Unfortunately we don’t have much to offer, money-wise, and this penalizes us.”
“The pop up restaurant was expected to open on May 1. The opening was delayed by more than two weeks as one of the candidate locations was ruled out. Christine explains “We had arrangements to settle at the old Tropicana building. Eventually problems concerning the suitability of the kitchen arose. We had to drop the location and start looking for a new one.”
For a good cause
Happietaria is a charity-driven initiative which aims to raise money for a good cause. Louise Geluk is responsible for rising awareness for the chosen project, she explains that a new project is picked every year. This year, the raised money will be devolved to improve water purification systems in the African country of Burundi. “Not many people know about the terrible living conditions of kids and their parents in Burundi.”
The Happietaria initiative is part of a larger network of charity work. “Happitaria works along with the Dutch Embassy on the World Feeding program to improve food, hygiene and water quality.” The project originally stems from the association ZOA which conducts humanitarian work all over the continent.
The volunteers are hoping to gather a lot of money this year. Happietaria Utrecht has set the bar quite high collecting almost 50.000 Euro during their five weeks opening time, Happietaria Rotterdam will try to do the same. Nonetheless, the most important aspect of the Happietaria experience, according to Louise, is to raise awareness for the country’s poor conditions. The restaurant will be opening in Dempostraat 143.
