Smaackmakers

About Smaackmakers

Smaackmakers is a Dutch social enterprise focused on making the food system more sustainable by changing how food, and especially catering, is viewed and organized within organizations. Since 2013, the company has worked with caterers, hospitality businesses, food and non-food companies, and public and educational institutions to move toward healthier and more sustainable catering.

Its positioning is strongly mission-driven: Smaackmakers aims to make sustainable and healthy food the default rather than the exception. The company frames catering as a powerful lever for reducing environmental impact, improving health, and supporting broader organizational goals such as MVO/CSR ambitions and employee wellbeing.

Core Values

• Sustainability: The company is built around reducing the environmental footprint of food and catering, with a strong emphasis on lowering impact on the planet.
• Health: Smaackmakers consistently links more sustainable catering with healthier meals, healthier employees, and better long-term outcomes.
• Plant-forward transition: A central value is the shift toward more plant-based and less animal-based food, which the company presents as the most effective way to create positive impact.
• Practical change: The company emphasizes actionable change through advice, tools, training, and implementation support rather than abstract advocacy alone.
• Positive engagement: Its workshops and programs are described as sharp, interactive, and positive, aiming to create momentum and mindset change without adding extra costs.

Unique Aspects

• Founded as a social enterprise in 2013: Smaackmakers was founded by Natascha Kooiman and Aart Jan van Dijk as a mission-led company focused on food-system transition.
• 10 Future Proof Food Principles: The company has developed its own framework of 10 principles that guide its approach to sustainable eating and catering.
• UN advisory role: Since autumn 2015, Smaackmakers has been a member of the advisory council of the United Nations Sustainable Food Systems Programme.
• Global Footprint Network involvement: The company is also linked to the Dutch division of the Global Footprint Network, reflecting its role in broader sustainability debates.
• High-profile implementation work: Smaackmakers supported ABN AMRO’s radical circular, healthy, and sustainable catering concept, including the pilot in Amersfoort and the later nationwide rollout.
• Public-sector and institutional reach: Its portfolio includes work with organizations such as RVO, Vitam, Rabobank, the Municipality of Almere, WUR, HAN, and Compass Group, showing broad reach across government, education, and corporate catering.