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Japan Distribution Management Support Organization releases a matching website connecting producers suffering from waste food with children's cafeterias.

Supporting Child Rearing with Know-How Cultivated in Food Distribution Management

- The following is content from the press release -

(headquartered in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo; Masato Sano, President), a systems company specializing in counterfeit goods and distribution management, opened a new children's cafeteria search site, "OPEN! 
The site can aggregate data on children's cafeterias listed by organization, transcending the framework of the organization and allowing users to search for children's cafeterias efficiently. At the same time, the site functions as a matching site between producers in the agriculture and fisheries industries who are suffering from waste food and children's cafeteria operators who wish to donate food, with the aim of reducing food loss and the burden of donating food and other materials.

This site is more than just a collection of links to children's cafeterias. It provides a My Page that each donor and children's cafeteria operator can log in to and use, connecting prospective donors and operators and enabling rapid matching of non-monetary donations.

In the past, if someone wanted to donate food to a children's cafeteria, but wanted to make a donation in the conventional way, he or she would have to contact the children's cafeteria's member organization or contact the relevant parties individually, and the member organization would also have to confirm such an offer with the member cafeteria and go through the administrative procedures. The member organizations also had to go through the administrative process of confirming with the member restaurants when they received such offers. In order to solve this problem, we have made it possible for both donation applicants and operators to create their own "My Page" so that matching can be done smoothly.

Burden of food donations, search system for each organization, platform to solve food loss issues

The number of children's cafeterias is increasing every year, and their activities are spreading throughout Japan. A search for children's cafeterias on the Internet turns up a variety of general incorporated associations and other organizations. In contacting one of them, we learned about the challenges of the current situation of children's cafeterias. We have received offers for donations, but the organization contacts us and we contact the children's cafeteria to which the organization belongs, and the exchange begins. It takes a lot of time and effort to match the donation with the organization, and gradually only monetary donations are being made. In fact, we would like to utilize foodstuffs donated by producers from all over the country from the aspect of food education, and use them as a place for food education to learn about "Koshihikari rice from Mr. 00 in Niigata Prefecture," "potatoes from Hokkaido," etc., but it is difficult to match the donations with the foodstuffs.

As a systems company that has provided traceability systems for agricultural and marine products, we also consider food loss to be an urgent issue, and wondered if our expertise could help solve these problems.

Issues that can be resolved at this site

  • Aggregate cafeteria information of individual organizations on a single platform, allowing users to search efficiently beyond the boundaries of the organization.
  • Matching food donors and children's cafeterias can reduce the burden of food donations and reduce food loss
  • By providing our system, we can facilitate the establishment of new organizations and lower the cost of establishing a website.

Search platform for children's cafeterias that transcends organizational boundaries, as well as food donation matching

One of the major problems faced by users of children's cafeterias is that they are introduced by organization and cannot be searched across the board. For example, while Cafeteria A appears on Organization A's website, Cafeteria B, which is located nearby, belongs to another organization, so users who go to check out Cafeteria A cannot find information on other nearby cafeterias.

If a site that consolidates all system registrations and searches exists, users will be able to search for cafeterias across the board regardless of which organization registers, and organizations operating children's cafeterias will no longer have to produce similar systems each time.

 On this site, a management screen exists for each organization, allowing new registration and editing of children's dining halls managed by the organization. This allows users to efficiently search for children's dining halls across organization boundaries.

 We also aim to reduce the burden of food donations through a matching function that connects producers and children's cafeterias. When a company in the agriculture or fisheries industry that we are involved with posts a request on the site, such as "Are there any cafeterias that need XXX foodstuff? The registered children's cafeterias are notified and simply click "accept" or "not accept" to make a donation.

Supporting children's cafeteria activities with know-how cultivated through food distribution management

We hope to support the creation of a system that can eliminate waste and give back to the world by streamlining the problem of food loss in food distribution, utilizing our know-how in distribution management and traceability of foodstuffs. We believe that if we can look at each problem and solve it with our know-how, rather than just providing monetary support, we will be able to contribute to society.

It is wonderful that many children's cafeterias exist in Japan, but it is not easy for users to find a children's cafeteria in their neighborhood from the many websites that are scattered all over the country. Also, both donated food and children's cafeterias need to be known by people who are willing to use them, or else these wonderful social activities will be meaningless. By utilizing this site, we hope that information about children's dining halls will be delivered to those who really need it, and that producers will be able to donate foodstuffs without any burden. We have already received requests for support not in monetary terms, but in the form of "information and data" such as places where diapers can be changed and temporary care can be provided, and we hope to create a better future together with the child-rearing generation who are raising Japan's future children.

OPEN! Children's Diner: https://sodate.kids/

Future Outlook

In response to this project, we have already received requests for donations from producers. One person in the fishery industry has expressed a desire to donate "kinmedai" (sea bream), Japan's premium fish, this summer. Through this activity, we would like to help children, who will be responsible for the future, taste various Japanese foodstuffs through "food" rather than just "money" as a form of fundraising, and to link this to nutrition education.

By being served at the children's cafeteria, we would like to ask, "What kind of place and what kind of people make the food?" We hope to create such communication with local people and help them feel closer to the charm of each region in Japan through the cafeteria.

In the future, we will further improve the convenience of the platform by allowing not only donors and children's cafeteria operators, but also cafeteria users to register their accounts.

Japan Distribution Management Support Organization, Inc.

A system company specializing in counterfeit countermeasures. In order to preserve the value of Japanese products for the future, the company develops systems for countermeasures against resale, diversion, and counterfeit products, and the establishment of traceability systems, using advanced system development capabilities that utilize biotechnology and AI (IT). We have experience in branding and marketing distribution support for the Japan Fruit and Vegetable Export Promotion Council, and in large-scale kansho projects subsidized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries to prepare for problems such as spoilage of agricultural products during export.

Company name Japan Distribution Management Support Organization, Inc.
         Japan Distribution Management Support Organization (JDMSO)
Representative: Masato Sano
Location Crescent Shimo-Kitazawa 2F, 2-30-8 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Home Page          https://jdmso.co.jp/
tel: 03-6869-6853
Established January 2019
Business Description Proof of origin, authenticity, anti-diversion, traceability