Kyoto begins delivering home food to children in need

General incorporated association ‘Kodomo Takushoku Ouendan’ (meaning ‘Children’s Home food Supporter’) has announced to cooperate with Kyoto city and social welfare corporation ‘Adachifukushikai’ to start a new support activity called ‘Kyoto Children’s Home food Project.

The Children’s Home food Project is an initiative founded in Bunkyo ward, Tokyo. It started in October 2017, delivering food for families that have financial difficulties. Originally, Bunkyo ward intended to deliver food to 150 households, but more than 450 applied for support. Today, they deliver food to almost 600 households every other month.

Kodomo Takushoku Ouendan was established in October 2018 to spread the Children’s Home food Support nationwide. Its main activities are to assist operating funds to start children’s home food support; give support to executing agencies by teaching skills and knowledge for problem solving; to gain publicity through its website and briefing sessions.

Following are some practical examples of Children’s Home food Support:

1. The Niigata Rice Project delivers 5 kilograms of rice every month to single-parent households with financial difficulties.
2. Todoke YELL delivers food to mainly single-parent households in Saga prefecture to build relationships between public support and households.
3. Echizen city sharing project’ sends surplus rice to households with financial difficulties to find those who need public support.

The association has cooperated with 6 business models across the country for 345 households and 1,113 deliveries made in late 2019. And now a new project is to start in Kyoto city. One possible reason why Kyoto is starting this project is because it is a major tourist city, and a lot of workplaces like restaurants and hotels employ workers part-time. In fact, the percentage of non-regular employment in Kyoto is 41.6%, which is second highest in Japan. And non-regular employment often causes unstable income, resulting in financial difficulties. Therefore, there may be a great number of households that need support like children’s home food.

Financial difficulties among single-parent households in Japan is a social problem that needs to be treated immediately. Lack of nutrition during growth period affects the child’s health physically and mentally for a long period of time. Moreover, if food support is given to poor families, they may be able to spare budget for education or improve home environment.

It is reported that the poverty rate of single mother households stood at 50.8% in Japan (as of 2011). According to a survey by Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the average income of households raising small children in Japan is estimated to be 6,581 thousand yen, whereas the average among a single mother household is about 2,523 thousand yen.

Unlike Children’s Cafeteria (known as ‘Kodomo Shokudo’ in Japan) that provides complimentary or inexpensive meals for children, Children’s Home food is delivered to each home and has no burden of visiting. The request for home food is accepted by e-mails and SNS apps, which is convenient and easy, minimizing the difficulty to apply. In addition, food is delivered door-to-door, so privacy is also protected for those who don’t want their privacy. Hopefully, this Children’s Home food Project will spread more nationwide soon, supporting households with regular food parcels to raise children with enough nutrition and showing households with difficulties that support is always within reach.