Octopus dumpling stand finds out it’s not always easy helping others, but finds a way to do it anyway with some heartwarming help.

Located in Osaka’s Higashi Yodogawa Ward, Takoba is a shop specializing in the city’s most beloved street food, takoyaki (octopus dumplings). But Takoba is more than a takoyaki joint, it’s also sometimes a kodomo shokudo.

Kodomo shokudo directly translates to “kids’ cafeteria” or “kids’ dining hall,” but there’s more to them than just child-friendly atmospheres and menus that appeal to little tykes. Kodomo shokudo are a sort of charitable endeavor where kids can eat for very reduced prices, if not entirely for free. The goal of kodomo shokudo is usually two-fold, to help kids from low-income families get a little extra nutrition, and also to let them enjoy the social activity of sharing a meal with friends from school and other peers, which they might not be able to afford to do at regular prices.

Kodomo shokudo are often run by individuals or independent groups, operating outside of official government welfare programs. That flexibility means there’s usually no required registration or verification of the child’s family’s financial situation to qualify for the low-price meal. The upside is that needy kids can use kodomo shokudo without feeling self-conscious or singled out, but that lack of regulations also made things difficult for Takoba earlier this summer.

▼ Takoba’s takoyaki

Ordinarily, Takoba operates as a kodomo shokudo for one day a month, selling a set of six takoyaki for just 10 yen (roughly US$0.07) instead of the regular 480 yen it charges. For this year’s summer vacation period, though, they’ve expanded their kodomo shokudo operation to every day from August 12 to September 1. Unfortunately, during that time Takoba’s owner, Mr. Shimada, found out that greater access to low-priced takoyaki came with some problems too.

First, the increase in kids meant an increase in trash, either purposely littered or accidentally dropped, in the neighborhood around Takoba, prompting complaints from local residents. Then there’s the issue of adults coming to the stand and asking for the 10-yen price, claiming they’re buying them for kids waiting at home, but with no way to verify if that’s true. Most heartbreaking of all, Shimada received phone calls from parents saying that some middle school-aged kids who’d bought the 10-yen takoyaki from the kodomo shokudo had been reselling them to elementary schoolers for 100 yen. “I felt so bad for the kids who could’ve gotten takoyaki for 10 yen but bought them [from the resellers] for 100 yen,” lamented Shimada.

All of this caused Takoba to suspend its kodomo shokudo offer just one week into its August schedule. But the shutdown didn’t mean Shimada had closed off his heart, and the kodomo shokudo has now resumed with a few new rules to address the problems that had cropped up.

For starters, parents are no longer allowed to buy kodomo shokudo-priced takoyaki on behalf of claimed non-present kids. Kids themselves have to be the ones buying them, and they have to be buying them for themselves, something indirectly enforced by a one-order-per-day-per-person limit. Kids are also asked to either eat their takoyaki in Takoba’s seating area, or to take them home and enjoy them there (i.e. they’re asked to refrain from eating them on the neighborhood’s streets). Shimada has also been able to talk with the middle schoolers who were reselling the takoyai for a profit, and explained why that’s not the right thing to do.

▼ The new rules are covered in a tweet from Takoba’s official Twitter account and also in a sign posted at the shop.

There’s also been a price increase for the kodomo shokudo takoyaki, from 10 to 50 yen. However, the takoyaki now also come with juice or a soft drink, a sticker, and some kind of sweet candy or salty snack. Helping make this updated generosity possible are donations from caring individuals and companies who’ve been sending Takoba boxes of food and drinks after being touched by the takoyaki stand’s commitment to keeping their kodomo shokudo running.

▼ A shipment of juice boxes donated to Takoba’s kodomo shokudo.

“It’s hard work,” says Shimada of running the kodomo shokudo, but he says he also loves having the opportunity to interact with local kids. “When they say ‘Thanks, mister!’, it’s like all my fatigue gets blown away, and it makes me happy I’ve decided to do this.”

With August winding down, Takoba will soon be going back to its one-day-a-month kodomo shokudo schedule, but the happy memories it helped kids create will no doubt be sticking with them even after summer ends.

Shop information
Takoyaki Takoba / たこ焼たこば
Address: 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.

Source: Maido na News, Twitter/@takoyakitakoba
Top image: Pakutaso
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