“Eat, play and sleep”” A Recipe for Peace and Prosperity
January 27, 2022
By Mariko Eguchi
Seventy three students from Night and Correspondence Departments of Hamada High School and five students of the University of Shimane participated in a workshop to learn how to eat to achieve the SDG Goals on Thursday, November 11, 2011.
The cooking workshop was part of nutrition education provided by Professor Mie Imanaka’s research team that was funded by Hamada City.
Professor Imanaka, Chair of Health and Nutrition Department of the University of Shimane. gave a lecture and cooking workshop featuring “SDGs and our eating habits.”
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a vision agreed by all 193 UN member states in 2012. They call for action in order to ensure all the people enjoy peace and prosperity by protecting the ecosystem of the Earth by 2030. There are 17 goals such as No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Clean Water and Sanitation, Responsible Consumption and Production, etc.
“SDGs are a grand plan which looks impossible to achieve. But we can make a difference by choosing what to eat,” said Professor Imanaka. “A lot of the SDG goals are related to the food we consume. In fact, food is essential part of our survival. So everyone can contribute to achieving SDG goals by learning how to improve our eating habits.”
Professor Imanaka and her team of researchers are engaged in nutrition education of young people. She designed a SDG’s workshop including a lecture, games, presentations and discussion for high school students and college students to promote a more responsible lifestyle for a better world.
The high school students listened to Professor Imanaka’s lecture on the relationship between SDG Goals and eating habits. She reminded the students how lucky they were by showing the pictograms of SDG goals; Japanese are blessed with clean water, abundant food, and quality education, while a lot of people in the world still cannot read or write, nor have access to food or water. She also said there was a great strategy for everyone to contribute to the SDG goals. That is: “Eat well, play well, and sleep well.”
Then Professor Imanaka introduced a quick and healthy snack recipe anyone can prepare. The students are invited to the table full of store bought rice packages and ready to eat ingredients such as dried sweet potato, sweetened baked chestnuts, and a variety of rice sprinkles. They mixed those ingredients to make nutrient-rich rice balls. The rice balls are more filling and nutritious than potato chips and fast foods. The students also had oranges and bananas to compliment the rice balls.
After fixing snack, the students of the University of Shimane talked about what college life was like. Mr. Taichi Urabe, junior of the University of Shimane, enthusiastically said college was a place which helped people develop their possibilities. He shared his passion of attaining sustainable agriculture in Palsestine by adding orange peels to neutralize its soil suitable for food production.
A third year student of the Night Department of Hamada High School said the workshop was very interesting. “I realized the modern life was convenient, but we waste a lot of resources. In the future, I want to be a chef friendly to the environment by cutting back on waste.”
“I have a problem of not being able to sleep these days. During COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t move during day. I think I should play sports, so I can sleep well. This is going to be my first step to achieve SDGs,” said Yui Yoshioka, senior of the University of Shimane.
Ms. Yuko Santo, teacher of Health Department of Hamada High School, appreciate the lecture by Professor Imanaka. “Students of Night and Correspondence Departments do not have a regular eating habit. Some of them eat only twice a day because their class starts in the afternoon and some of them work late at night. I hope today’s lecture can help them choose healthy foods.”
Mr. Hiroharu Ishihara, Vice President of Hamada Senior High School’s Night Department, said that his students were able to understand the concept of SDGs better because Professor Imanaka made the idea digestible through her interesting talk and demonstration. “With a little bit of creativity, anyone can increase well-being and contribute to SDGs.” He also appreciated the presence of the college students who showed what it was like to pursue their goals.
Cooking with Students Empowers All
January 22, 2021
By Mariko Eguchi
A young girl wearing a white lab coat quickly passed a bag of cut cabbage and green pepper to a girl wearing transparent plastic gloves, who then put the vegetable on aluminum foil. A girl wearing a head scarf placed sliced pork with chopsticks. A young boys wearing a cute apron carefully wrapped pork, mushroom and cabbage with aluminum foil and neatly arranged them in a frying pan. The state-of-the art kitchen of Hamada High School was full of noise and flavor, tap tap tap of mixing, delicious smell of sizzling meat. and happy laughter of young students.
Finally a feast time came. After a unison of “let’s eat, everyone!” The hungry students and teachers enjoyed the grilled salmon, macaroni salad and spinach miso soup.
On November 22, 2020, college students led a cooking education program for high school students. The collaborative cooking class was designed by Professor Mie Imanaka, Chair of Health and Nutrition Department of the University of Shimane, Japan.
Professor Mie Imanaka believes that cooking skills and knowledge of nutrition are a foundation for personal well-being. Cooking teaches children important life lessons such as budgeting, planning, communicating, creating, cleaning, and appreciation for people who prepare foods as well as for the nature that supports life.
Prof. Imanaka and her colleagues created a collaborative cooking program to achieve two goals. One of them is to empower at-risk high school students belonging to the evening and correspondence departments of a local high school by building meaningful connections with peers and college students who are like big brothers and sisters through cooking together.
The other goal is to enhance the effectiveness of the curriculum of Department of Health and Nutrition by giving their students an opportunity to test theories in the real world. This collaborative cooking program helps their students create quick and healthy recipes suitable for young people who do not know how to cook.
According to a report published in 2013 by Ministry of Education of Japan, 301,605 students attend the evening and correspondence schools in Japan. Youth who had problems in previous schools consists of 39 percent, while youth coming from low socio-economic status due to single parenthood accounts for 37 percent of the student body.
According to Mr. Kazuhiko Komagawa, Vice President of Hamad Senior High School’s Evening Department, his students will benefit from interactions with big brothers and sisters, because positive interactions with others will help them overcome their negative experiences in the past.
MEXTReport:https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo3/047/siryo/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2013/07/12/1336336_2.pdf
Simple Recipes to Empower Teens
By Misato Oka
Who prepared your boxed lunch when you were a high school student? Did you fix your breakfast and dinner? Probably not. In this project, the members were given a task of creating easy and quick but healthy recipes for teens who are at risk. It was a challenging but valuable experience for me.
First, thinking of dishes for teens was challenging. I have never thought of creating a recipe for someone in reality. In class we have learned how to assess menu items for nutritional adequacy of various people, but this time the requirements was specific. The target was teens. It is important to consider the preferred taste, which is different depending on the age of a person. Also we needed to finish cooking and eating within 45 minutes and the cooking skills of the students varied. When we created menu, the professors gave us feedback and we finally came up with the following recopies as follows:
A. Pork and Vegetable Foil Packet (Ingredient for One Serving)
-100 grams of sliced pork with fat
-One grab of mixed mushroom
-Butter
-Salt and pepper
- Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper.
- Place slices of pork on the foil.
- Add mushroom and sprinkle salt, pepper and butter.
- Wrap the contents and place it on a frying pan.
- Cook with medium heat for the first four minutes and reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes.
- You may serve it with ponzu, citrus flavored vinegar soy sauce if you like.
B. Macaroni and lettuce salad
-One grab of cut lettuce
-One grab of macaroni salad
-Half of a boiled egg
-One crab stick
- Mix cut lettuce with macaroni salad.
- Crush egg and tear crab stick
- Place the egg and crab stick on the mixed lettuce and macaroni salad
C. Spinach Miso Soup
-10 grams of frozen spinach
-0.5 grams of dried kelp
-100 ml of water
-Appropriate amount of soft miso in a tube
- Boil water.
- Put miso in a bowl and pour the boiled water.
- Put frozen spinach and dried kelp and mix well.
The high school students looked very nervous at the beginning. So I tried to talk to them in a friendly manner, and they replied, and we started conversation. They smiled at me and I felt happy. After cooking we ate meals together. They looked satisfied with menu and ate everything on the table. I felt our recipes were successful.
Working with the students of Department of Policy Studies was eye-opening, too. I have never met them because their campus is far from the one where I study. They visited our campus twice and I was able to have a good time with them. I was very inspired by talking with them because they have different dreams. Our dream is to become registered dietitians. One of Policy Studies students wants to become an English teacher. Another student can speak Korean language fluently because he studied abroad in South Korea. I was very much motivated by them to study English so I can speak English fluently.
Thus this project was very meaningful for me. I was able to test my knowledge against the reality. I was able to see some changes in the high school students. I was motivated to study more through interactions with the participants.
Joy of Making New Friends through Cooking
By Taichi Urabe
Students of Department of Policy Studies who joined a community outreach project offered by Department of Health and Nutrition of the University of Shimane in 2020 had a wonderful time interacting with peers and local high school students. They were able to learn many new skills.
One skill they learned is a video production skill. The six Policy Studies students created a video featuring a life of college students with unhealthy eating habits. Hinako directed acting and edited video clips into a story. Taichi wrote a script where two students who do not know about healthy eating habits. Ryoga and Hinako performed in front of a camera, playing roles of students who do not have good knowledge about nutrition and diet. Seima shot the scenes and narrated a message. The video making was not only enjoyable, but also educational.
Secondly, they improved their communication skills. The two departments are located in different cities, Izumo City and Hamada City, so they communicated remotely. They had video conferences using Teams and formed a LINE group to make plans. The students of Hamada Campus visited Izumo Campus twice so they can learn how to cook from the Nutrition major students.
The communication skills of the Nutrition major students were superior. They explained the process of cooking clearly in a confident manner to the high school students. They also used written posters so that everyone could understand the recipe.
The college students initiated conversation with the high school students, asking questions and smiling at them. The high school students were cheerful and happy, and the cooking room was full of noise and laughter. The high school students said they enjoyed the cooking and would like to cook the dishes by themselves
Joy of being Integral Part of a Project
By Tomoka Takahashi
Do you like to join volunteering activities? I do. I have done a lot of volunteering including picking up garbage, wearing a bear costume, serving soup, etc., believing that serving people in need was a good thing to do. I had been satisfied with being a good person. However, the cooking with high school students project offered by Department of Nutrition and Health was not simply satisfying, but truly empowering because it involved students as an integral member of the undertaking.
One of the differences between this project and my previous volunteering activities was that I understood the mission of the project very well. During the orientation before visiting the high school where the main undertaking happened, I was able to meet the professors and students of Department of Health and Nutrition via videoconferencing, and I learned the purpose of the project was to empower the high school students who went to evening and correspondence schools. Professor Mariko Eguchi of Department of Policy Studies instructed the project members to brainstorm ways to raise the awareness of the importance of healthy eating habits. So we came up with recording foods we ate every day and creating a video to stimulate discussion on the issue. I realized I had not understood the missions of my previous volunteering activities. I just went to there and played a role and left. I think I was being passive.
Another point this project offered was a sense of being a valuable member of a team. The members were entrusted by the professors and we were able to make plans. The Policy Studies students visited the campus of Health and Nutrition Department twice and we communicated through SNS in order to think of recipes together. We shared our own experiences about college life, academic interests, and foods. Since the majors of the students were different, we were able to share many new ideas. Also the topics of the conversation were so familiar that everyone felt it was easy to speak up. Policy Studies students shared international views, while Nutrition students shared health related views. I felt the students of the different majors respected each other for their own expertise. It was so much fun to talk so I hated to catch the last train back to Hamada.
Thus the combination of understanding the project purpose, trust given by the professors, easy subjects to talk about, and the synergy created by the different majors are the factors that made this project special. I would like to take part in this project again.
Students fixed healthy snacks using precooked ingredients.