No.106 School lunch joint kitchen New first kitchen completed

The new No. 1 kitchen, which was constructed on the east side of Nanzan Elementary School, has recently been completed, and a small completion ceremony was held on October 10, 2020.
The building has already been completed in early September 2020, and cooking utensils and cleaning equipment have been installed since then, and the remaining kitchen equipment and supplies have been brought in. In the future, various preparations, simulations, cooking, etc. will be carried out by contractors. After undergoing cooking and cleaning training, it will be operational from April 2021.
Now, the rebuilding and relocation of the school lunch communal kitchen is a policy that I have been working on for many years, and I feel deeply attached to it compared to other measures, so I am overwhelmed with emotion as it has been completed.
Compared to other local governments in Tokyo, Inagi City has been implementing a complete school lunch program (providing staple food, side food, and milk) for elementary and junior high schools since a relatively early period compared to other municipalities in Tokyo. The first kitchen has been in operation since February 1, 1971, and together with the second kitchen, which started operation on April 12, 1999, to accommodate the new school built in conjunction with the development of Tama New Town, we have expanded from two locations. We are distributing meals.
The No. 1 kitchen is in a state of disrepair, and although there have been calls for renovations to be made for some time, there have been difficult issues to resolve, and it has not been possible to do so.
The first issue is the issue of zoning. The current Daiichi Kitchen is located adjacent to Daiichi Elementary School, but the city planning zone has been designated as a ``Class 2 medium-to-high-rise residential area'' and no factory can be built there. Additionally, large-scale renovations are treated the same as new construction, so renovations are not allowed. The problem was that it was in a so-called ``existing unsuitable'' state and could not be redeveloped on site.
The second issue is the site issue. Inagi City has long been a municipality with a weak financial base, and has been unable to purchase land for basic public facilities such as compulsory education facilities, and has been forced to build on leased land for a long time. Although some of the land for the Daiichi Kitchen is owned by the city, most of it is rented from local landowners, and will eventually have to be purchased or returned. However, even if the company were to be acquired, the land would not be able to be used to rebuild a factory, so there would be no investment effect.
The third issue is the issue of relocation. Although it is called a school lunch kitchen, it is still a food factory, and as a general rule, the zone in which it can be constructed is limited to "industrial areas" or "semi-industrial areas." However, there are almost no industrial or semi-industrial areas of a certain size suitable for kitchen sites within the city.
I became aware of this problem as I served as the Finance Division Manager in 2006 and learned about the city's overall financial situation. Determined that the matter must be resolved at some point, we have been considering the idea of ​​relocating to the Nanzan area, along with the need to build a new elementary school in the area.
When running for mayor in 2011, I made a pledge to build a new Nanzan Elementary School, and after I was elected, I immediately secured land for the elementary school, and also began considering securing land for a factory nearby. .
Furthermore, in parallel with this, we consulted the Inagi City School Lunch Joint Kitchen Management Committee regarding the future direction, and received a report in August 2013.
The results of the study were: ``We would like to continue with the full school lunch program that has been implemented up until now; ・Public and private management is appropriate for the operation of the kitchen; ・We have secured a candidate location within the city for the facility development of the first kitchen. Opinions were expressed that the second kitchen needs to be rebuilt as soon as possible, and that equipment needs to be refurbished to balance the number of schools it handles with the first kitchen and accommodate the increase in the number of cooks.
Based on these opinions, in the 2015 mayoral election, we focused on rebuilding and relocating school lunch communal kitchens and providing allergy-friendly meals as the pillars of our pledge.
The first kitchen, which will be completed this time, will be able to serve up to 6,500 meals, and together with the second kitchen, which will have a maximum of 3,000 meals, it will be possible to supply 9,500 meals per day. We will continue to provide a stable and complete school lunch service to all elementary and junior high schools in the city, and will also begin providing allergy-friendly meals.
In addition, we are equipped with a rice cooker line so that we can provide hot rice and soup even in the event of a disaster, taking disaster prevention measures into consideration.
Due to the impact of the new coronavirus infection, there are no plans to hold a large-scale completion commemoration ceremony, but we hope to hold a preview for school officials and parents just before the start of operations next year. .
We look forward to the day when we can show it to everyone.