Roof Food, from roof to plate...
Sabien Windels — rooftop farmer — feels reborn five years after starting Roof Food. "My mission is clear: inspiring and convincing people about sustainable food, buying local, and the value of staying close to nature." Corona helped to regain focus. Her new project: a rooftop vegetable garden shop.
Sabien Windels — founder and managing director of Roof Food — has been pioneering with Belgium's first rooftop vegetable garden for five years. Through various creative concepts, she promotes urban agriculture, value-driven entrepreneurship, and vegetable gardening from the roof of De Punt business centre in Ghent. Not an easy path. After many setbacks, successes, and a corona crisis, she's back on track with a brand new vegetable garden shop.
"I feel reborn today," says Sabien. "I feel like five years ago when Roof Food started: energetic, enthusiastic, full of self-confidence and convinced of the success of our new concept, the vegetable garden shop." It's clear that Sabien is excited. Yet the past few years weren't all roses. Quite the opposite.
"The past few years were a fantastic adventure and at the same time a path of suffering"
"I could hide it well, but over the past five years I've felt bad a lot. The struggle to combine my passion for urban agriculture — which reconnects people with nature — with a profitable organisation, caused a lot of stress. That took its toll both mentally and physically. That was really not okay because that was exactly what I didn't want to achieve with Roof Food: I want to reconnect people with nature, with their food, with themselves."
Interest in ecology and sustainability
Already during her studies in commercial engineering at UGent, Sabien was interested in ecology and sustainability. She was later able to pursue that interest partly through a research project at KaHo Sint-Lieven on sustainable cities. "During those two years, I discovered myself. It felt good to be surrounded by people with the same values, who asked themselves the same questions as I did. We thought about the city of the future, about renewable energy, CO2 reduction, climate plans for cities..."
Sabien becomes fascinated by ecological, sustainable food, the short supply chain principle, and the local economy. "During a meeting of the Ghent think tank on urban agriculture, they discussed the difficult search by farmers for available land. That's when the idea of rooftop vegetable gardens first occurred to me. I felt a trend was coming. I saw how people had become alienated from food and nature and that there was a need for a return. This is regenerative thinking in practice — not just limiting damage, but truly restoring what has been lost."
Fanatical vegetable gardening
Meanwhile, Sabien has been fanatically vegetable gardening in her spare time. She devours vegetable garden bibles, takes workshops, and dedicates herself to composting. Together with her father, also an engineer, she builds a greenhouse and plans to start aquaponics. This is a branch of urban agriculture that works without soil, using very light substrates or nets instead.
"That was fun, but the longer I was involved with it, the more I realised that this wasn't what I believed in. This wasn't the message I wanted to convey. I wanted to bring people back in contact with nature and the seasons. I wanted to show them how well nature works and how inspiring it can be when we leave it undisturbed. A controlled system of aqua- and hydroculture was the exact opposite of that for me."
Regenerative economy
After that realisation, the step towards rooftop vegetable gardening was quickly taken. Sabien delves into all aspects of green roofs and draws inspiration from urban designers who advocate sustainable cities. She realises she wants to be a rooftop farmer — not as a trend, but from a deeper purpose. "At a certain point, that was so clear to myself that I could no longer ignore that feeling." Sabien wants to do it right. She wants to distance herself from similar existing hippie initiatives and make it a professional project.
Putting the pieces together
In January 2014, when Sabien is only 24, she starts her business plan. To give herself a deadline, she participates in Bizidee, a competition for start-up entrepreneurs. Her dream quickly turns into a concrete idea.
"Trends like the greening of cities, the revival of old crafts, the short supply chain principle... I combined them into something concrete"
"The concept of a rooftop vegetable garden isn't earth-shattering, the time was simply right for it. I saw the greening of cities, the revival of old crafts, the short supply chain principle... I combined all those trends into something concrete. I see it as a big puzzle whose pieces I put together." She talks with architects, structural engineers, the city of Ghent... and searches for a suitable roof in Ghent.
Through connections, she ends up at De Punt business centre in Gentbrugge, which has plans to start a new building project. "From the first contact with Dany Neudt, the then director, I knew I had found the right location. We clicked immediately and there was mutual trust. I still can't think of a better place for a rooftop vegetable garden than here!"
cvba Roof Food
Ten months after launching her idea, in October 2014, cvba Roof Food is officially founded. It's then still two years until the roof of De Punt is delivered.
"Of course I didn't want to wait that long. The idea was born, the name Roof Food conceived, the website launched and I had already created a lot of buzz with my participation in Bizidee. I wanted to get started."
"Even before Deliveroo and company existed, we were delivering vegetarian lunches from our rooftop garden with our cargo bike: the rooftop dish"
Sabien places the call 'Roof Food seeks roof' in the newspaper and immediately receives a positive response from Gaston, a restaurant on the roof of an old textile factory. The first Roof Food rooftop vegetable garden of 50m2 became reality in 2015. Thanks to a VLAIO subsidy, Sabien could experiment extensively and figure out which substrate is most suitable for different plant groups. It also marks the start of her first creative concept: the rooftop dish.
"The idea was to offer businesses in the area a sustainable lunch consisting of three vegetarian preparations served in mason jars. The lunches would then be delivered by cargo bike. That was long before Deliveroo and the like existed," Sabien smiles. To make those rooftop dishes, a cook is needed. Sabien posts a vacancy for cook/co-managing director and from then on Roof Food has two employees: Nine.
In early 2016, the move to the roof of De Punt follows. "Then we really went deep into the red workload-wise... We had to organise the move, lay out a 500m2 rooftop garden, design and furnish the kitchen... That was actually all a bit too intense, but we had no other choice."
Catering and rooftop dinners
Sabien and Nine don't get much time to recover because unexpectedly they receive more and more catering requests from governments and companies. "That was of course something different from those rooftop dishes. Catering means going on location, serving drinks, walking around with appetisers... pure hospitality." To meet the growing demand, Roof Food hires a second cook, Aram.
Initially, the rooftop dishes and catering run in parallel, but it quickly becomes clear that the rooftop dishes are not profitable. "That was too good a product for too little money," says Sabien. "Creative vegetarian cooking is labour-intensive by nature. Add the competition from Deliveroo and people who don't want to spend more than twelve euros for a lunch... and the calculation is made."
"Commercially, catering was a much more interesting path. Aram was an excellent cook who raised the quality of our offering to a higher level. In 2016, we also started with rooftop dinners. During the summer months, people could come to our roof to dine and taste our home-grown produce. The products we couldn't provide ourselves, we bought from local organic farmers.
The guests also received a tour of the garden and an explanation of our vision and operations. Ultimately, it was more than just food. It was an experience in itself. A five-course gastronomic menu at a democratic price in the middle of a vegetable garden in full bloom... those were fantastically beautiful evenings!"
Hard times
From 2017, a difficult period begins for Sabien personally and for Roof Food in general. There is a lot of tension between colleagues and communication is difficult. "We didn't argue," says Sabien, "we were just on a different wavelength. I had absolutely no experience with hospitality and it quickly became clear that it wasn't for me. I was very focused on Roof Food's mission: inspiring and convincing people about sustainable food, buying local, and the value of staying close to nature. But that mission proved difficult to reconcile with the daily reality of a hospitality business."
Meditation as salvation
"Meditation helps me to observe things more objectively"
Three difficult years follow for Sabien with a lot of self-doubt and two burnouts. "In 2018, I crashed twice and was out for six months while my colleagues kept things running. I was simply no longer able to work." During this period, Sabien meets a coach specialising in intuitive entrepreneurship who offers to guide her. She accepts and a year later also discovers transcendental meditation, a technique that helps reach a deeper state of consciousness.
"Thanks to that meditation — which I still do twice a day — I was able to look at things as an objective observer. I became softer, I understood Aram and Nine's perspective better, it was no longer my ego speaking... That was a great relief. Afterwards, I fully embraced the hospitality aspect and worked very hard for the rooftop dinners and catering to show my team they could count on me. I enjoyed it and they appreciated it."
Happonomy and the turning point
In the autumn of 2019, Sabien meets Happonomy, an organisation focused on improving quality of life by supporting value-driven entrepreneurship. "Together with Happonomy, we thoroughly examined Roof Food as an organisation. The timing couldn't have been better because during that period we had one setback after another, Nine got a burnout, the roof started leaking, we were in difficult papers... I saw no way out.
Fortunately, the people at Happonomy had a very clear view of the situation and helped us step by step. Without them, the damage to Roof Food would certainly have been greater. After the financial analysis, I finally made the decision to stop the catering. It wasn't profitable enough and it wasn't my passion. Moreover, I was already playing with the idea of starting rooftop vegetable garden consultancy. I regained confidence that there are other business models and that I don't have to depend on one source of income."
Crisis brings solution
And then the corona crisis broke out. "My birthday is March 13, lockdown day. That was, to my feeling, the best gift ever.
Suddenly, the whole world was on pause. My phone was quiet, appointments and catering assignments were cancelled, I received financial support, but above all, I suddenly got a lot of space and time to think about the future. Exactly what I needed after the difficult decision to stop the catering."
"That the world stood still because of the lockdown was exactly what I needed. Suddenly I got space and time to think about the future"
Sabien doesn't need to think long. Corona naturally leads her to a new, temporary concept: a vegetable garden shop on the roof. "It's a logical step in this uncertain time when people are turning inward. More than ever, people choose safety, they want to buy local and be self-sufficient, and vegetable gardening fits perfectly with that."
Together with Jonathan, the rooftop farmer who has been working for Roof Food for a year, Sabien will run the dakshop. "I enjoy being able to do this together with Jonathan. We have the same vision and strengthen each other greatly. Jonathan is a true craftsman. With great love and patience, he slowly grows seedlings. Those are what we'll sell in the first phase."
"Today I feel reborn, and ready to go 100% for the vegetable garden shop"
"As I just said, I feel reborn today. I've been able to close things properly with Aram and Nine, it looks like I've found a buyer for the kitchen, and I'm completely ready to go 100 percent for the vegetable garden shop. It's a new start but one with a great deal of knowledge and experience. The brand is there, the customers are there, and I'm sure this will catch on."
Want to start your own regenerative journey?
Sabien's story shows how important it is to clarify your values and build your organisation around them. Whether you're looking for your own entrepreneurial path or want to learn how to build a regenerative organisation:
- Meet like-minded entrepreneurs and activists at Spark Community — just as Sabien did
- Take the workshop How do I build a regenerative organisation? to design your own vision and business model
Thanks to Vlaanderen Circulair, the Flemish policy organisation for circular economy, for supporting this article.