YOKOHAMA -- A group of high school students recently set up a three-day bakery in a shopping street in this city south of Tokyo to support the needy with the proceeds from reselling leftover bread they bought from a store.
The idea was to kill two birds with one stone by supporting the needy beyond the scope of conventional volunteer work and at the same time preventing food loss, and came from the high school students' wish to "start with activities we can do ourselves."
"Would you like some bread? We are a 'bakery for the future,'" high school students called out to customers in front of Akinai Garden, a store whose owner changes daily, at around 8 p.m. in early August along the Gumyoji shopping street in Minami Ward, Yokohama.
On a table in front of the store, several kinds of bread, including raisin bread and curry buns, were lined up. The prices are cheaper than at regular bakeries. Office workers and homemakers hurrying home came over one after another, saying things like, "This looks delicious," or "Can I have those donuts with red bean paste, too? In less than 15 minutes from opening, the 41 pieces of bread stocked for the day were sold out.
The bakery was planned by "project for the future," a group of volunteer students from Yokohama Senior High School of International Studies. The group was formed in April 2020 and meets during lunch breaks and after school to discuss social issues of interest and to plan activities.
In May 2021, while thinking about the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations, they searched for activities they could engage in as high school students. Focusing on the issue of food loss in Japan, they came up with the idea of a "bakery for the future," thinking that the issue of food is familiar to high school students.
When those students were thinking of ways to prevent waste by buying and reselling unsold food at low prices, they learned about a similar system -- the "nighttime bakery" operating at Kamome Books, a bookstore and cafe in front of Kagurazaka Station in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.
The nighttime bakery is run by The Big Issue Japan, which helps people living on the streets to rebuild their lives, and the students asked the company for advice. The students asked for the cooperation of Kamome Pan, a long-established bakery near the school, and the proceeds from the sales will be used to support the needy through The Big Issue Japan.
The volume and types of bread students can buy from Kamome Pan vary from day to day. In addition, there are also many restrictions that affect the project, such as the Food Labeling Act, which prohibits the sale of products other than those with their ingredients labeled.
However, Himari I, 16, a second-year student at the school, said, "By not selling a set selection of products, people can discover items that they don't normally pick up." The students sold a total of 214 pieces of bread over the three days.
Himari said with a smile, "Local people came to buy bread more than I imagined, and I felt the importance and warmth of human relationships. Once the spread of the coronavirus is under control, I would like to open the store again."
A 48-year-old woman from Kanagawa Ward, Yokohama, who came to the bakery after learning about the initiative through social media said with a look of admiration while holding the bread she purchased, "This is a wonderful activity. If this kind of project continues, it will raise awareness about food loss."
According to The Big Issue Japan, this is the first time the company has directly cooperated with an outside party in a project similar to the nighttime bakery. A representative of the company said, "We cannot spread this project nationwide on our own. We are very happy that the high school students have really made this kind of initiative a reality."
(Japanese original by Nao Ikeda, Yokohama Bureau)
Font Size S M L Print