200 kitchens, 11.8 million plates — Kantine Zukunft celebrates an important milestone

Speiseräume works alongside kitchen teams to make food systems both delicious and sustainable. The focus is on public catering: from nurseries and university canteens to government offices and care homes. In other words, places where meals are prepared daily for large numbers of people and where good food makes a direct difference to society.

Through the ‘Kantine Zukunft’ project, we have been demonstrating since 2019 how concrete change can be achieved in this area.

In Berlin’s canteens, kitchen teams prepare thousands of meals every day. This is precisely where ‘Kantine Zukunft’ comes in with its free advisory programme, the ‘Kantinen Werkstatt’. It supports the teams in gradually improving their offerings in terms of product quality, culinary craftsmanship, sustainability and health. Our kitchen trainers take a hands-on approach and work on an equal footing with the teams. They don’t stand on the sidelines; they’re right there in the kitchen with them. They cook alongside the teams, refine recipes and, together with the teams, adapt workflows to suit their (new) daily routines.

The reach of the programme demonstrates that this approach works: around 11.8 million meals a year are now influenced by Kantine Zukunft’s support.

With the completion of the St. Judas Thaddäus nursery, we have reached an important milestone. 200 Berlin kitchens have embarked on this journey together with Kantine Zukunft. 200 places where it is clear that change is possible in communal catering, even within existing constraints and budgets.

This milestone is more than just a figure. It stands for kitchens that are breaking new ground. For teams that are honing their craft. And for organisations that are prepared to strategically embed quality.

We celebrated this moment where it belongs: at the table of the St. Judas Thaddäus nursery. Together with the kitchen team, the operator and Berlin’s Senator for Consumer Protection, Dr Felor Badenberg. A place where countless children experience what good nutrition means every day and where their lives are shaped for the better.