NEWS

Local-production-for-local-consumption dishes at the Dining Hall

Update: July 13, 2016

On July 4 (Mon), ICU's Dining Hall added a new item called Tabetemita Curry, curry and rice using plenty of summer vegetables harvested locally in Mitaka.

The Dining Hall has been using vegetables purchased from farmers in Mitaka for salads, and it came to offer dishes cooked using local produce based on a proposal from a student group led by Mses. Kumi Kawagoe, Rukshini N. Shiriwardena. and Kanaho Takahashi and Mr. Shota Matsuo, four 2nd year students of the College of Liberal Arts, who were interested in local production for local consumption and fair trade.

To offer local-production-for-local-consumption items at the Dining Hall, the students sought the cooperation of farmers in Mitaka to supply vegetables and had discussions with the Dining Hall to make it happen.

The offering of Tabetemita Curry ended on July 8 (Fri), but the Dining Hall will continue to offer items arranged according to the vegetables harvested locally.

Comment from Ms. Kumi Kawagoe

I feel that the introduction of local-production-for-local-consumption dishes at the Dining Hall was realized thanks to the cooperation of Mr. Takayoshi Negishi, a farmer in Mitaka, and the Dining Hall, which readily accepted our proposal. We will continue with our activities and propose new local-production-for-local-consumption dishes to further strengthen the collaboration between the community and the university.

Comment from Ms. Rukshini N. Shiriwardena

I have always been interested in fair trade and local production for local consumption but I did not know where to start and could not take action. However, this project taught me that it is important to take a step forward first and that you can achieve something that may initially look difficult, which gave me the confidence to continue forward. I would like to further spread local production for local consumption from ICU and make contributions to local farmers as much as possible.

The Dining Hall's initiatives so far

The Dining Hall has implemented the following based on proposals by students.

• Introduction of Re-repack, recyclable containers, for takeaways
• Offering of fair trade coffee
• Introduction of the TABLE FOR TWO program
  A program in which if you order specific items, 20 yen will be donated from the sale and the donations are used to provide school lunch for children in developing countries through TABLE FOR TWO International.
• Introduction of "Meal for Refugee (M4R)"
  Offering of dishes typical of the homelands of displaced people
• Offering of local dishes