2024.04.03

“Connecting People” Children’s Cafeteria Opens Community space through food, for community contribution and multicultural coexistence

　SUN (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Shumpei Nakasone) held the “SUN Kodomo-Shokudou”　(Children’s Cafeteria) on March 23, 2024 (Saturday).

Kodomo-Shokudou is a children’s cafeteria where kids in hardship can enjoy free or low-cost meals and a community of friends with similar circumstances and caring adults. SUN, which aims to “connect people with people” as its corporate philosophy, agreed with the purpose of the Kodomo-Shokudou (children’s cafeteria), which acts as a base for community interaction and opened the “SUN Kodomo-Shokudou” at its head office in Minato-ku, Tokyo. SUN Kodomo-Shokudou is a member of the “Minato-ku Children’s Cafeteria Network” established by Minato-ku.

 

■Message from SUN Kodomo-Shokudou
We would like to tell the children who will be leading the future that;
The world is created through connections with people.
The world is wide and it is close to you.

We would like children to make connections with people through food, and to know a new part of the world through interactions with people outside of school.
It is with this in mind that we started the “SUN Kodomo-Shokudou”.

 

■Purpose of the program
To share meals with children who eat alone and to create a community space where parents can get advice from each other.

Kodomo-Shokudou is not only for families suffering financial hardship. Kodomo-Shokudou is not only for families suffering financial hardship. There are many reasons for using the Kodomo-Shokudou, including children who eat alone because their parents are busy with work, parents and children who attend private schools and have little interaction in the community, housewives and househusbands who have little interaction outside the home, and parents whose grandparents live far away and have no one nearby to support their childcare concerns. The SUN Kodomo-Shokudou provides not only meals but also a place for parents to talk with other parents about their concerns and deal with loneliness.

 

Creating Opportunities for Multicultural Coexistence
In Minato-ku, where embassies and foreign-affiliated companies are gathered, many workers from overseas in Japan also live and work in the area. Because of the language barrier, foreign residents and their children tend to be isolated from the social network. To live together in society, it is important for them to participate in the local community and to share and understand each other’s culture. We would like to encourage families of foreign residents living in Minato-ku to participate in the SUN Kodomo-Shokudou and create opportunities for them to connect with the local community regardless of their nationality.

 

Activating Internal Communication and Increasing Motivation through Social Contribution

Through the operation of the Kodomo-Shokudou, we expect employees to interact with each other, which will lead to more active communication in the company and increase employee motivation. Social and community contribution activities bring together employees who have no contact with each other in their projects and create new communication. We aim for employees to experience team management in a different environment through exchanging opinions and cooperating, and they create a proactive team.

 

Creating a Community across Generations or Regions (to be determined)

Due to the “self-quarantine” during the pandemic, many adults are suffering from isolation and loneliness, as they have become less connected with others. In the future, we are planning to expand the SUN Kodomo-Shokudou so that participants will not be limited to families raising children, but also include people who work in the community and the elderly. Through having meals and attending activities together, we aim to create a new local community space open to people of all ages, occupations, and nationalities. We would also like to expand this project to other areas where SUN has branches across Japan and continue our efforts to “connect people to people”.

 

■Outline
Name: SUN Children’s Cafeteria
Details: Provide meals and activities
Eligibility: Children over 3 years old to high school students and their parents/guardians
Date: March 23, 2024, 12:00-14:00 *Other events scheduled for June, September, and December 2024
Location: SUN Corporation Head Office (3F Noax Building, 1-16-4 Nishi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo)
Website: https://www.sun21.co.jp/kodomo-shokudou

 

■The First “SUN Kodomo-Shokudou”
The first “SUN Kodomo-Shokudou” was held on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at the SUN head office in Shimbashi. Volunteer employees cooked curry and served it to parents and children living in the Minato-ku area.

　

 

■The Second “SUN Kodomo-Shokudou”
The second “SUN Kodomo-Shokudou” was held on Saturday, March 23, 2024, at the SUN head office in Shimbashi. Volunteer employees cooked chicken fried rice and corn soup, and served it to parents and children living in the Minato-ku area.

　

■ SUN Co., Ltd
https://www.sun21.co.jp/
We are an IT company that operates a system integration business, Web design and a foreign resident support business under the corporate philosophy “To become a globally-renowned company based on our mission ‘connect people with people’ “. We actively hire globally, and by connecting people, we create new value and deliver innovation to the world.