Photo/Illutration People have dinner at the Adult Cafeteria in Sendai’s Aoba Ward on Feb. 16. (Miya Yoshimura)

SENDAI--In response to soaring living costs, an initiative that provides warm and nutritious meals to struggling residents for free has resumed here after a five-year hiatus. The aim is to show people they are not battling the world alone.

The aroma of warm chicken broth soup filled the air at the community center in the city’s Aoba Ward on Feb. 16 when the neighborhood’s “Adult Cafeteria” was open.

This community kitchen project is named after the “Children’s Cafeteria,” a general term for free or low-cost meal programs nationwide for children in need and their families.

Tables were laden with dishes from around the world. Around 50 people, including foreign nationals, gathered to receive food, chat or eat in quiet solitude.

Among the diners was a woman in her 30s who was visiting for the first time. Currently unemployed, she was seeking a job while receiving public assistance.

The woman described living on a tight budget, sometimes unable to afford basic necessities such as rice due to skyrocketing prices. Meals had become a mere means of filling her stomach, with little thought given to taste or nutrition.

The Adult Cafeteria also offers counseling services, and the woman took the opportunity to discuss her financial struggles and the stigma she faced.

She recounted overhearing local hospital staff whispering, “She’s on welfare, you know.” The woman realized that while she hadn’t changed by losing her job, the way others perceived her had.

The burden of concealing her struggles had become unbearable.

“It was my first time eating out in a while, and I was a bit nervous,” she said. “Eating and chatting with others is important. I enjoyed it.”

INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS

The dish she chose that day was soto ayam, an Indonesian chicken soup. “It was great,” she said with a smile. “It helps a lot to have a meal like this.”

The food was prepared by volunteer Mohammad Nazmul Hoda, a 25-year-old student from Bangladesh, who said, “I help out here as I used to do in my home country because food is the most important thing.”

The Adult Cafeteria is run by Food Bank Sendai, Sendai POSSE and Sendai Keyaki Union, local groups focused on labor and poverty issues.

Their goal is to offer warm, nutritious meals to all while creating a space where community members can connect and share their struggles.

COVID HIATUS

The project first took off in 2019 at a time of economic downturn. It continued intermittently until the COVID-19 pandemic forced its suspension in 2020. The recent surge in living costs prompted its revival.

“We want to create a place where people can dine together, relate to each other and realize they are not alone in their struggles,” said Saori Kasahara from Sendai POSSE.

Kasahara, 25, said she hopes that by chatting with others diners will identify the challenges they face and the steps they need to address them.

A growing number of families, as well as individuals, are facing extreme hardship in the city.

Some of those turning to Food Bank Sendai have gone for two weeks without food or have had their water and gas services cut off due to unpaid bills. Among them are those living on welfare payments as well as international students.

This is another reason for organizers to keep the community kitchen going: to let people know that they can find support in some way.

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