Octopus dumpling stand finds out it’s not all the time straightforward serving to others, however finds a approach to do it anyway with some heartwarming assist.
Positioned in Osaka’s Higashi Yodogawa Ward, Takoba is a store specializing within the metropolis’s most beloved road meals, takoyaki (octopus dumplings). However Takoba is greater than a takoyaki joint, it’s additionally typically a kodomo shokudo.
Kodomo shokudo instantly interprets to “youngsters’ cafeteria” or “youngsters’ eating corridor,” however there’s extra to them than simply child-friendly atmospheres and menus that attraction to little tykes. Kodomo shokudo are a type of charitable endeavor the place youngsters can eat for very lowered costs, if not solely without cost. The purpose of kodomo shokudo is often two-fold, to assist youngsters from low-income households get somewhat further vitamin, and in addition to allow them to benefit from the social exercise of sharing a meal with mates from college and different friends, which they won’t be capable to afford to do at common costs.
Kodomo shokudo are sometimes run by people or impartial teams, working outdoors of official authorities welfare applications. That flexibility means there’s often no required registration or verification of the kid’s household’s monetary scenario to qualify for the low-price meal. The upside is that needy youngsters can use kodomo shokudo with out feeling self-conscious or singled out, however that lack of rules additionally made issues tough for Takoba earlier this summer season.
▼ Takoba’s takoyaki
たこ焼たこばと申します。
フォローして下さい。
フォローバックさせていただきます。きっとあなたが笑顔になるたこ焼きがあります😊
8/26〜8/28三連休をいただいております。#たこ焼たこば#子供食堂#たこ焼き屋店主 pic.twitter.com/GCM9bDquHy
— たこ焼たこば takoyaki takoba (@takoyakitakoba) August 27, 2024
Ordinarily, Takoba operates as a kodomo shokudo for sooner or later a month, promoting a set of six takoyaki for simply 10 yen (roughly US$0.07) as an alternative of the common 480 yen it expenses. For this 12 months’s summer season trip interval, although, they’ve expanded their kodomo shokudo operation to each day from August 12 to September 1. Sadly, throughout that point Takoba’s proprietor, Mr. Shimada, discovered that larger entry to low-priced takoyaki got here with some issues too.
First, the rise in youngsters meant a rise in trash, both purposely littered or by accident dropped, within the neighborhood round Takoba, prompting complaints from native residents. Then there’s the difficulty of adults coming to the stand and asking for the 10-yen value, claiming they’re shopping for them for youths ready at residence, however with no approach to confirm if that’s true. Most heartbreaking of all, Shimada acquired cellphone calls from mother and father saying that some center school-aged youngsters who’d purchased the 10-yen takoyaki from the kodomo shokudo had been reselling them to elementary schoolers for 100 yen. “I felt so unhealthy for the youngsters who might’ve gotten takoyaki for 10 yen however purchased them [from the resellers] for 100 yen,” lamented Shimada.
All of this brought about Takoba to droop its kodomo shokudo provide only one week into its August schedule. However the shutdown didn’t imply Shimada had closed off his coronary heart, and the kodomo shokudo has now resumed with a couple of new guidelines to handle the issues that had cropped up.
For starters, mother and father are now not allowed to purchase kodomo shokudo-priced takoyaki on behalf of claimed non-present youngsters. Youngsters themselves should be those shopping for them, and so they should be shopping for them for themselves, one thing not directly enforced by a one-order-per-day-per-person restrict. Youngsters are additionally requested to both eat their takoyaki in Takoba’s seating space, or to take them residence and luxuriate in them there (i.e. they’re requested to chorus from consuming them on the neighborhood’s streets). Shimada has additionally been in a position to speak with the center schoolers who had been reselling the takoyai for a revenue, and defined why that’s not the proper factor to do.
▼ The brand new guidelines are coated in a tweet from Takoba’s official Twitter account and in addition in an indication posted on the store.
【夏休みたこやき子供食堂】
🐙8/12〜9/1
11：00〜14：00
17：00〜19：00
🐙たこやき6個入り50円
ドリンクとお菓子と
「たこばちゃん」のシールつき
🐙1日1回 1パックのみ
自分の分だけです。
お友達の分を買う事は出来ません。
🐙中学生以下が対象
🐙乳幼児は不可
自分で来て… pic.twitter.com/hcVo8XwAuX— たこ焼たこば takoyaki takoba (@takoyakitakoba) August 13, 2024
There’s additionally been a value improve for the kodomo shokudo takoyaki, from 10 to 50 yen. Nonetheless, the takoyaki now additionally include juice or a delicate drink, a sticker, and a few sort of candy sweet or salty snack. Serving to make this up to date generosity doable are donations from caring people and corporations who’ve been sending Takoba containers of meals and drinks after being touched by the takoyaki stand’s dedication to holding their kodomo shokudo working.
▼ A cargo of juice containers donated to Takoba’s kodomo shokudo.
優しいフォロワー様から子供食堂の為にとジュースが届いておりました。
ありがとうございました。
早く帰ってきて良かった。
この暑さのなか、紙パックのドリンクを、置き配で放置は危険でございますよ。 pic.twitter.com/PENGJhmOWF— たこ焼たこば takoyaki takoba (@takoyakitakoba) August 28, 2024
“It’s laborious work,” says Shimada of working the kodomo shokudo, however he says he additionally loves having the chance to work together with native youngsters. “After they say ‘Thanks, mister!’, it’s like all my fatigue will get blown away, and it makes me pleased I’ve determined to do that.”
With August winding down, Takoba will quickly be going again to its one-day-a-month kodomo shokudo schedule, however the pleased recollections it helped youngsters create will little question be sticking with them even after summer season ends.
Store data
Takoyaki Takoba / たこ焼たこば
Deal with: Osaka-fu, Osaka-shi, Higashi Yodogawa-ku, Osumi 1-1-19
大阪府大阪市東淀川区大隅1-1-19
Open 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 5 p.m.-10 p.m.
Supply: Maido na Information, Twitter/@takoyakitakoba
High picture: Pakutaso
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