Food Tourism in Asia by Eerang Park & Sangkyun Kim & Ian Yeoman

Author:Eerang Park & Sangkyun Kim & Ian Yeoman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811336249
Publisher: Springer Singapore

Furthermore, the student volunteers were motivated to gain and thus appreciate the opportunity of building social capital through networking with various people, for example, from the TCCI, the COT and other sectors. An anonymous college student who volunteered for the event in 2017 commented, “I feel my world is wider than before and appreciate that opportunity, and I learn various things through the volunteering, which I did not know”. Thus, they even considered their volunteering as a metaphor for lived experience and lessons from which they could learn life wisdom, social skills, cooperation and more, leading to personal growth in many respects.

Along with the student volunteers, retired government officers of the City of Tatebayashi and other public sector workers in community service centres also took part as festival volunteers. Some of them had previous experience of similar events or festivals during their employment and so were familiar with nature of such an event, were skilful at managing various tasks with little or no training. Local volunteers from a variety of age groups helped with festival preparation in various ways. Their motivations in the participation varied and included contributing to regional revitalisation, supporting younger generations, helping friends and enhancing their social capital. With the student groups, their main task was (1) to appropriately dispose of food waste into the allocated bins, including recycling bins; (2) to hold mobile signposts (e.g. “queue here”, “sold out”, “toilet here”, etc.); (3) to provide directions when tourists got lost; (4) to clear the venue up when needed; and (5) to assist in setting up the stage.

Due to the strict regulation on leftover food disposal and recycling in Japan , a large number of volunteers were allocated to the cleaning team. Disposable vinyl gloves and aprons were provided at the venue, and the teams controlled and monitored the allocated bins for leftover food waste and recycling products such as disposable plastic plates, cans and bottles. As it was a heavier task, volunteers worked shifts (e.g. one-hour work and one-hour break). During their break, they could walk around the festival venue or take a rest at the volunteer booth.

The volunteers were not paid but received a bag of souvenirs sponsored by companies who supported the TNGP. Figure 7.3 shows the souvenirs volunteers received in 2017 which included a volunteer cap from the City of Tatebayashi, wheat flour products from Nissin Food Group, two kinds of Tabasco sauce from Shoda Shoyu Company and two bottles of drinks from Calpis – the big beverage corporation which has a manufacturing plant in Tatebayashi.

Fig. 7.3Souvenirs for volunteers at 2017 Tatebayashi Noodle Grand Prix (Source: Authors 2017)

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