Daan Vijselaar, event manager at Hubble, explains the concept: “People can make a donation to provide a starter, main course or dessert, giving whatever amount they wish or can afford. A donation to provide a dessert, for example, costs only 3.50 euros. The money collected enables us to make meals. We then take these to the Food Bank, where they are distributed to clients.” As Xaveria Vossen, president of the Hubble board, adds, “This avoids people making unnecessary trips to the TU/e campus, something we want to avoid during corona.”  

1350 meals

In total 1350 families and singletons are eligible for a dinner. It is estimated that the sum of 21,000 euros is needed to provide all these people with a Christmas meal. “But this coming Thursday we will see how much money has been collected and only then will we decide what the meal will consist of. We want to give everyone a three-course meal, but if that's not possible we'd rather see everyone get a main course than see some people get three courses and others nothing. And we will look at our clients too: how many children are among them, whether anyone has allergies and so on. The meal must be appropriate,” Vossen stresses.

They are certainly not short of culinary inspiration at Hubble. What do you say to a delicious mushroom soup? Or a chocolate tartlet? Chicken with prunes, or a vegetarian Wellington? “Chef Zena Heemskerk and Hubble manager Peter Joosten are very creative. However much money is collected, they will work within these limits to produce something festive,” Vossen says. “And so the biggest challenge is not the food itself but the packaging: it must keep the food fresh but also look appealing.”