Judy was one of the first entrepreneurs in the Netherlands starting a care farm in 2000. The care farm has made several developments throughout the years becoming a development farm with a team of care coaches an production employees. The farm “De Laarhoeve” provides outbound care to approximately 25 production employees with special needs. The farm assortment consists of jams, dessert sauces, apple sauce, cooking pears, red cabbage, chutneys, pasta sauces among others. The processing is completely natural and her costumers are the retail chains and the catering industry.
The applicant is building a professional experimental kitchen with several production and wrapping lines. This is a quality improvement and an expansion to current facilities. The design and equipment choice has been defined based on the work needs of the employees at the care farm maximizing their work space. The project provides the opportunity to develop and test new products and recipes before they are produced and processes at the farm. The products are put in the market with a private label; they don’t have added sugar, they have less salt then normal products and have a higher nutritional value. Rejected products due to shape, size or ripeness are usually used to feed livestock or thrown away. The applicant, with this project, creates value: preventing food waste, shortening the food chain, through quality improvement, cost reduction efficiency, transparency shortening of food miles and sustainability. Other farmers can use her facilities, have workshops , food tasting and company meetings there. The kitchen will be operating in Q3 2018 expanding meaningful work environment for workers with special needs.
