2023
FROM A KITCHEN TO A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
The first Demopratic Forum produced the Geneva Right to Food Manifesto in April. On 18 June, Geneva voters approved the constitutional recognition of the right to food.
MATER FONDAZIONE / GENEVA · SINCE 2020
FROM
TWELVE
SEATS TO
SYSTEMS
CHANGE.
A culinary experiment became a citywide emergency kitchen. That kitchen became a permanent social institution. The institution became a platform for the right to food.
READ OUR STORY ↘
GENEVA / ARCHIVEAN IDEA MADE OPERATIONAL.
01 / THE ORIGIN · GENEVA, 2018
IT BEGAN
WITH
A TABLE.
12SEATS
LE CINQUIÈME JOUR
Le Cinquième Jour was an experiment in what gastronomy could be. The challenge was simple and radical: could the standards of fine dining be extended to people experiencing hardship, without treating dignity as a privilege?
The same attention, technique and hospitality offered to paying guests could become an act of social inclusion. This was the first practical expression of what would become MATER.
BEFORE THE FOUNDATION THERE WAS A QUESTION: WHO IS GOOD FOOD REALLY FOR?
02 / COVID-19 · THE COMMISSARY KITCHEN
2020 / EMERGENCY RESPONSETHE CITY
STOPPED.
THE KITCHENS
DIDN'T.
A NETWORK, NOT A SINGLE KITCHEN
65,000
MEALS DELIVERED DURING THE COVID-ERA COMMISSARY KITCHEN RESPONSE
THE EXPERIMENT BECAME AN OPERATION.
The pandemic brought Le Cinquième Jour's experiment face to face with a much larger need. Restaurants closed, people lost incomes and reliable access to food became more fragile. MATER mobilised working kitchens, professional chefs, volunteers, suppliers and distribution partners.
The Commissary Kitchen was not a conventional soup kitchen. It was a decentralised emergency food operation, preparing balanced meals with professional standards and getting them to people through community organisations.
The point was never simply to multiply portions. It was to prove that culinary quality, effective logistics and human dignity could coexist—even under emergency conditions.
4KITCHENS ACTIVATED
6DISTRIBUTION LOCATIONS
35VOLUNTEER CHEFS & COOKS
65,000 is MATER's confirmed total for the wider COVID Commissary Kitchen response. The separately published 2020 annual report records 17,100 meals during its 90-day reporting period; the 2020 network indicators above are from that report.
READ THE ORIGINAL 2020 REPORT ↗03 / A PERMANENT RESPONSE · 2022
JANUARY 2022 · GENEVAAN EMERGENCY
BECAME AN
INSTITUTION.
NOT A CANTEEN.
A RESTAURANT FOR EVERYONE.
In January 2022, Refettorio Geneva turned MATER's emergency experience into lasting civic infrastructure. A professional kitchen, surplus ingredients, a restaurant setting and unconditional attention to hospitality came together under one roof.
The point was no longer to meet a temporary crisis. It was to create a place where food security, dignity and community could be practised every day—while listening to the people who actually use it.
In July 2026, Refettorio moved to a fully social model, with free services at both lunch and dinner.
DISCOVER REFETTORIO GENEVA ↗04 / THE WORK BEYOND THE KITCHEN
ONE STEP
DEMANDS
THE NEXT.
What began with cooking had consequences beyond cooking. Providing food led to asking who has access, who participates in decisions and which institutions are responsible.
READ THE GENEVA MANIFESTO ↗
2024
THE WORK ENTERS INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
MATER obtained consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), linking direct operations with international dialogue.
2025
A EUROPEAN CAMPAIGN TAKES SHAPE
On 8 July 2025, the European Commission registered the European Citizens’ Initiative “Food Is a Human Right for All!”, establishing the basis for the signature campaign launched in January 2026.
2026
A SOCIAL RESTAURANT. A EUROPEAN CAMPAIGN. AN OBSERVATORY.
The European Citizens’ Initiative launched in January. RRK began meal service in Lebanon in April, Refettorio moved to free lunch and dinner in July, and ODAG advanced its Geneva right-to-food monitoring framework.
05 / ONE FOUNDATION · THREE LAYERS OF ACTION
FOOD TODAY.
RIGHTS TOMORROW.
These are not disconnected projects. They are different ways of confronting the same problem: people's access to good food should not depend on charity or luck.
-min.jpg)
01 / GENEVAREFETTORIO GENEVA
A permanent social restaurant, food-recovery kitchen and place of encounter. Free food served with the standards of a restaurant, not a queue.
ENTER REFETTORIO ↗
02 / LEBANONRAPID RELIEF KITCHEN
Professional emergency food capacity that works with local chefs and community partners, built around logistics, nutritional quality and dignified distribution.
DISCOVER THE RESPONSE ↗
03 / GENEVA + EUROPERIGHT TO FOOD ADVOCACY
Democratic participation, public responsibility and legal instruments to make the right to food operational—from Geneva to the European Citizens' Initiative and ODAG.
EXPLORE ADVOCACY ↗06 / HOW WE WORK
PRINCIPLES
THAT SURVIVE
SERVICE.
01 /
QUALITY IS NOT RESERVED.
Food prepared for people in hardship deserves the same culinary knowledge, care and standards applied to paying guests.
02 /
DIGNITY IS PRACTICAL.
The space, the welcome, the table, the service and the way people are treated matter as much as the food itself.
03 /
PARTICIPATION CHANGES DECISIONS.
People who use a service must be able to influence its development—not merely be counted in a report.
04 /
RIGHTS REQUIRE ACCOUNTABILITY.
Operational work, transparent reporting and public institutions are connected. A right is meaningful when it can be implemented and defended.
What we believe must be visible in what we do—during an ordinary lunch service, during an emergency and at the negotiating table.
09 / AN INVITATION TO ACT
THE NEXT
CHAPTER
IS SHARED.
Come to the table. Share your time. Support the kitchens. Help defend the right to food.
