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Welcome to the SDGs in the News Podcast. This is Susan Yoshimura, Managing Editor of Japan 2 Earth, coming to you from Tokyo. Today, we bring you another English article on Japan and the SDGs. You can find the full text on our website. Just click the link in the episode notes. Have a listen.
Onagiri Action! Start Small to Change the World for the Better
Student Contributor, Kohei Arai, describes how he channels his passion for helping the poor and reducing food loss into volunteer activities on and off campus.
As a second-year international exchange and cooperation student at Radoku University in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, I think often about becoming an international volunteer in the future. I want to do good work that will help the poor.
But what can I do now, while I'm still in school?
I decided to take a leadership role in my volunteer club at Radoku. Through my club, called Tweedia, I do my part to help reduce food loss in my local community.
The name Tweedia comes from a blue flower. In the language of flowers, Tweedia represents a spirit of mutual trust and happy love. We believe in sharing these sentiments with the poor.
This year, Tweedia is participating in the Onagiri Action program run by a non-profit organization called Table for Two. We named our initiative Onagiri Action 2022 at Radoku.
I got the idea to do volunteer work involving food from a class I am taking on social business. As part of my classwork, I searched for an activity to help developing countries. When I watched a video about Table for Two, I strongly wanted to help them achieve their vision.
Not able to visit a developing country during the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to do what I could right here in Kashiwa. There are two main parts to our initiative.
First, Tweedia sells rice balls, Onagiri, which make use of leftover food made by a restaurant on campus called Munryo. We give 20 yen per Onagiri to Munryo, and in exchange Munryo gives us Onagiri using food which would otherwise be discarded.
This helps reduce food waste. And it's also tasty. I was very glad to hear customers who bought our Onagiri say, this tastes good and I'm happy to be able to help people by eating delicious Onagiri.
Our volunteer work helps a local business, helps keep perfectly good food from being thrown away, and helps Radoku students by providing a healthy and delicious option for lunch. I am very gratified by my work in starting Tweedia and planning the Onagiri Action initiative.
The second part of Tweedia's Onagiri Action project is collaboration with local kindergarten students and their parents. We make Onagiri and teach the children about food issues through a traditional Japanese picture story show called Kamishibai.
Today's kindergarten students have missed out on a variety of experiences because of the many virus-related restrictions these past few years.
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Both children and their parents look so happy learning together about Onagiri. This was also very gratifying to me. Table for Two's work not only helps address poverty issues through more thoughtful use of food, but also contributes to improving the environment by reducing food waste.
By helping with this work through the Onagiri Action project, Tweedia plays a part in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs. We donate our profits to the World Food Program, WFP.
Our faculty advisor, Professor Ritsu Fuyutsuki of Radoku University and the Moralogy Foundation, helps us coordinate our work toward SDGs.
Dr. Fuyutsuki commented on the potential of our club's activities.
Linking various knowledge learned at university with real learning and actual social activities will lead to the first step toward realizing a sustainable society.
The Onagiri Action event by Tweedia aims to address poverty issues, SDG 1, and food loss, SDG 12. We are confident that this event will spread not only within the university, but also to the local community, thereby contributing to raising public awareness of the need for a sustainable society.
Our Onagiri Action 2022 at Radoku program was a success. I appreciate the many people who supported us.
We hope to gradually expand the scale of the program so that we can reach not just the Radoku University, Morology Foundation, and the kindergarten where we volunteer, but also the wider community in the vicinity.
We want to keep doing our part in any way we can.
Kohei Arai is a student at Radoku University and a guest contributor to Japan to Earth.
That brings us to the end of today's article.
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Until next time, this is Susan Yoshimura of Japan to Earth, signing off.
