15/04/2026
🍉FOOD 4 ALL
Life as a student in The Hague is difficult enough as it is. Ask yourself: how many of your friends and classmates can afford to regularly use the university canteens?
The cost of living crisis in the country is reflected in overpriced campus meals. But expensive canteens don’t just hurt your wallet: they deepen inequality among students. Those already struggling financially are the ones pushed away from the canteen. This is how inequality reproduces itself quietly every lunchtime.
These are our campuses. Food here should be for everyone, not a privilege for those who can already afford to get by. And while we’re taught sustainability in the classroom, what’s on our plates tells a different story. Therefore, we are calling for affordable, healthy, tasty and sustainable food for all at Leiden University.
We know this can be done, look at Amsterdam and Utrecht. De nieuwe Mensa, a student-run initiative at University of Amsterdam, created after protest against expensive food at the canteen, offers filling and plant-based meals for just €4.50 daily. Similarly, students at Utrecht University enjoy meals at De Pit for €5.
