We have to eat nutritiously to live healthy lives and avoid the risk of a lack of proper nutrition (World Health Organization, 2019). Also, by eating correctly we can prevent the effects of some illnesses and diseases such as diarrhea, coronary heart disease, lower respiratory infections and HIV/AIDS (Rasmussen, 2020). However, according to UNICEF (n.d.), approximately 356 million children worldwide are starving or close to starvation. Closely connected to this, is the issue of global poverty. The country with the highest poverty rate at present is Syria at 82.5%, but incidentally, Japan, a top-ranking developed nation, also has poverty at the rate of 15.7 percent (index mundi, 2022). Recently, there are people regardless of age who have been feeling the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For children, especially, it seems to be getting harder to develop communication skills due to a lack of face-to-face contact and opportunities to make friends in their school, among other things. Moreover, there are children whose parents have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, and are suffering financially. For these children, there is a special kind of cafeteria where they can visit to meet others and get a much needed and nutritious meal. This place is originally known as Kodomo Shokudo in Japanese. To try and discover what is being done to help people in our community through these tough times, we decided to interview the people who are involved in the Arashiyama Kodomo Sshokudo in Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan, a place very close to our university.
The Kodomo Shokudo was co-founded in 2015 in Kyoto Prefecture by Takatsugu Takahata (Arashiyama Kodomo Shokudo, (n.d.)). This was because he wanted to support local children who often had to eat their meals alone at home, as they have parents who both need to work or are single parents. The organization really started after Mr. Takahata had been discussing with his school dad friends about not only their family and children, but also the overall issue of child poverty. After sharing their thoughts, they decided to try and start the Kodomo Shokudo to support local children and people in need, initially, at least, on a casual basis. Thanks to their decision, it has been a place where people have found great comfort and helped each other, despite the problems and difficulties that COVID-19 has brought. One of the things they do to build good relationships with the community is to receive donated food from shops and make good use of that food by making lunch boxes. This is food that cannot officially be sold due to store policies, but can be quickly reinvented into healthy eating options for those most in need. The organization has also used this to create a convenient environment to support local people, and has seen the numbers of local people attending the cafeteria increase greatly.
Mr. Takahata Takatsugu (in the center of this picture)
The atmosphere at Arashiyama Kodomo Shokudo
Therefore, there are several big positives for people in the community. First of all, they can enjoy time freely with others and eat an extremely cheap meal, and they can also relax in a comfortable environment with comfort food. As we all know, food prices are continually rising right now, so this facility has become a very useful place for those who are suffering from poverty.
Furthermore, Mr. Takahata aims to make this a more beneficial and community-based place for local people, not only by providing very affordable meals for those in difficulties, but also by encouraging and accepting anyone who is interested in helping, such as regular volunteers. By doing so, he hopes that people will become more aware of people who need support regardless of their appearance, make stronger community relations and help decrease the number of people in poverty. Secondly, you can meet a wide range of generations there. In the Kodomo Shokudo, there are not only children but also adults, because anyone can go there and buy a lunch box that the Kodomo Shokudo staff makes and join as a volunteer. Plus, for those children who, due to poverty and other factors, cannot go to school and have few friends, this is a place to interact with a variety of people and gain confidence.
The process of making tomato sauce and potato salad for this day’s menu
In order to spread the word about this wonderful facility, we interviewed some of the participants, including Mr. Takahata, Ms. Kawahara, Ms. Nakanishi, Ms. Shimohara, and Mr. Uchikawa, and joined in by volunteering for the day. Once we got started, we could see some of them have been volunteering since junior high school and have many years of experience, while others are new to volunteering. Some of them are used to working with others and were able to complete tasks quickly, while others were unsure of what to do at the beginning. However, since all had different roles they could play, and were of different ages, they had different ways of thinking, and we felt that we could learn a lot from them. In the facility, each person had a well-defined role to play, and there was real cooperation between the students and adult staff, from young children to the elderly. Those who were about the age of mothers were mainly responsible for cooking and washing dishes when making the lunch boxes. Among the students, each of us had some defined roles. For example, we were mainly responsible for stirring stuff in pots, carrying the many ingredients in the large containers, and cooking rice and counting the number of lunch boxes. Additionally, some students were tasked with arranging the ingredients into a single bento (lunch box) container after they had been cooked. The wonderful thing was that everyone was able to work cooperatively with people they had never met before, which is a truly special aspect of the organization. The process of supporting one another is the reason why the atmosphere of the Arashiyama Kodomo-syokudo is so warm and friendly. Through talking with each interviewee, we could learn new ways of thinking that we had both never considered or realized.
The process of making Japanese hamburg steak for this day’s menu
Interview
Interviewees
Mr. Takatsugu Takahata (co-founder)
Ms. Rina Shimohara (volunteer)
Mr. Taiki Uchikawa (volunteer)
Ms. Eimi Kawahara (volunteer)
Ms. Rieko Nakanishi (volunteer)
Q: What do you feel is special about the activities of Arashiyama Kodomo Shokudo?
Takatsugu: I feel a great sense of fulfillment when both the people who come here and the volunteers learn something new from each other, and also I can get positive comments or appreciative words from people who have engaged with this community. So, whoever wants to come to this Kodomo Shokudo will be welcomed.
Q: What is your main goal concerning this Kodomo Shokudo?
Takatsugu: My goal regarding it is to make it a place that everyone can easily rely on, because there are people who actually need support, even if we can’t notice that from their outward appearance. In addition, there are children who lose weight due to an unbalanced diet and a lack of nutrition, or become in poor health during a long vacation. Therefore, I want to continue the Kodomo Shokudo to help these people.
Q: What made you decide to volunteer at the Kodomo Shokudo?
Taiki: I was actually volunteering elsewhere, but then found this children’s cafeteria and started volunteering here, too. I also decided to get involved because I like children.
Rina: I learned about it while being active in a circle called ‘Habitat’ at my university.
Eimi: I have always loved volunteering. However, as I could not really help people when I was an elementary school student, I started thinking about helping people in need more seriously after I entered junior high school. To try and be a better person, I bring my used clothes to a shop for recycling and reuse, and I have joined a volunteer club. Thanks to this club, I learned about this Kodomo Shokudo and started volunteering here.
Rieko: Before I started volunteering in this Kodomo Shokudo, I heard there were only a few volunteers. Therefore, I decided to volunteer to help this community.
Q: What kind of image did you have of the Kodomo Shokudo before volunteering here?
Taiki: I thought that the majority were children.
Rina: I didn’t really know much about it.
Eimi: I could not imagine Kodomo Shokudo because I had never heard of it before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got here. It makes me happy that I could find one of the ways that I can be helpful to others.
Rieko: I thought that it has the power to connect people thanks to Mr. Takahata. Therefore, I became interested in it.
Shizuki (left) and Ms. Eimi Kawahara (right)
Q: How do you feel about volunteering at the Kodomo Shokudo?
Taiki: When it came time to join, I could not feel the poverty. However, I enjoy talking with the people who participate every month. I felt it was a place where I could learn a lot.
Rina: As a student, I feel that experiencing work as a volunteer and not for money is something I can only experience now, as I don’t have to survive in mainstream society.
Eimi: I really enjoy volunteering here, especially when the people who come here say thank you for the lunch boxes we make for them.
Rieko: It is very rewarding because I am able to see what visibly works for someone. I think that this Kodomo Shokudo makes both the volunteers and the people in need feel comfortable thanks to the fairness of the system. The people who come here can get a homemade meal for a very reasonable price. Plus, I enjoy feeling a kind of connection with this community through the donations of vegetables, snacks, toys and other items that are collected for them.
Q: What do you get out of the experience?
Taiki: I have become strongly interested in working in a job where I can address the issue of child poverty.
Rina: I had never even heard of families in financial need, but once again, volunteering made me aware of many things such as this.
Eimi: I have come to believe that I want to spread a better image of volunteering and the rewarding feeling you get from doing it, so that others might get interested in it, too. Also, I think that it is particularly important for young people to turn their attention toward helping people and build a warm connection with others in their community.
Rieko: I focus on being a blessing to other people without it feeling like a burden for them, but I also try to avoid giving myself too much pressure when volunteering. In my opinion, it is better for everyone who comes to the Kodomo Shokudo to not only complement each other but also to pay attention to the people around them, and then do what is necessary. Through my volunteering experiences, I have become more flexible and able to accept my failures.
Volunteers in action
Reflections
In conclusion, we listened to a variety of opinions in the interviews, such as positive comments about the community and the importance of thinking of people who are suffering from poverty. Thanks to this really enjoyable experience, we could learn a lot of things and share opinions about the kind of community we need, what we should do for people who are in need of help, and the importance of volunteering. We also learned a lot from the staff working at the Kodomo Shokudo: compassion for those in need; the fact that being able to eat is not something to be taken for granted; and that there are many problems around us that we are not even aware of. However, we think we have grown a lot just by realizing these things through our participation in this activity. Additionally, we think that Kodomo Shokudo is a place that has the magical and happy power to connect people, regardless of age, gender and nationality.
We strongly hope that the number of such facilities will increase in the future, and at the same time, we hope that we can spread the word about such a wonderful place like the children’s cafeteria, through word of mouth, SNS and other means. We believe that we students have the power to spread the word, and by doing so, we hope that more people will learn about the current state of poverty in Kyoto and become interested in helping those in need. Also, this time we visited the children’s cafeteria in Arashiyama, Kyoto, but if we have the opportunity, we would like to visit other children’s cafeterias in different locations in Kyoto to have different experiences and learn more. We hope that this interview and volunteer work, as well as the report that will be published, will be the first steps toward this goal.
This day’s lunch box
References
Arashiyama Kodomo Shokudo. (n.d.). Arashiyama Kodomo Shokudo. Story. Retrieved from https://arashiyamakodomosy.wixsite.com/kodomosyokudou/blank-cx3a
Index mundi. (2022). Population below poverty line – Country Comparison. Retrieved from https://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=69
Rasmussen,M. (2020, January 27). The Top 4 Diseases of Poverty Worldwide. BORGEN Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.borgenmagazine.com/the-top-4-diseases-of-poverty-worldwide/
UNICEF. (n.d.). Child poverty. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/social-policy/child-poverty
World Health Organization. (2019). 20 health tips for 2020 – WHO. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/philippines/news/feature-stories/detail/20-health-tips-for-2020
Researchers
Hi! I’m Masahiro Iwamoto. I am a student at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in Kyoto, Japan. I was born in Brazil and raised in Japan. I really like to study English and listen to western songs. Additionally, I like to watch dramas. I would like to be an interpreter, so now I’m studying English very hard to improve my English skills. I’m studying English, listening to some English songs and watching some dramas or movies. By doing so, my English skills are becoming better little by little. I also like to play sports very much. I have played volleyball for approximately six years.
Hello! My name is Shizuki Sogawa and I am a student at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in Kyoto, Japan. I study English and I am interested in various things such as social issues, learning languages, translating, volunteering and so on. I grew up in the countryside in Wakayama so I like the beautiful scenery of mountains and sea. My important values are to actively challenge something new and to be myself to broaden my horizons. In my free time, I like watching movies, listening to music, enjoying fashion through which I can freely express myself, gardening and hanging out with my friends.