Onigiri Action

Helping Children Around the World with Onigiri

In Week 5, Term 4, our Japanese elective students participated in the #OnigiriAction campaign, a wonderful initiative that combines learning about Japanese food with helping children in need.

Onigiri is a traditional Japanese dish made from rice, often shaped into a ball or triangle and filled with a salty or pickled filling. It's a simple, tasty, and portable meal that has been enjoyed in Japan for many years. Now it is getting popular around the world. The word onigiri was added to the Oxford English Dictionary this year, showing just how popular it’s become worldwide!

The #OnigiriAction campaign started in 2015 and aims to help children in need by sharing photos of onigiri. Here’s how it works: for every photo posted on social media with the hashtag #OnigiriAction, a donation of 100 yen (about $1 AUD) is made to provide meals for children in need. Every photo shared helps provide five meals to children around the world!

Around the world, 1 billion people don’t have enough to eat, while 2 billion struggle with health problems like obesity and diabetes caused by unhealthy eating. Hunger is not just an issue in faraway countries—it also affects people here in Australia.

That’s why campaigns like #OnigiriAction are so important. The more photos we share, the more meals we can help provide.

Our students in the Japanese elective course got involved by making and sharing their own onigiri. They not only learned how to make this tasty dish but also about the importance of giving back to those in need.

Throughout the week, the students and teachers made onigiri, showing great creativity and care. This campaign has been a wonderful reminder of how small actions can make a big difference in the lives of others.

A big thank you to all the students who have already participated in the campaign. Your efforts are making a real difference. Let’s continue to support this cause and show kindness to others!

Reports from Japanese students

Various Japanese classes in our school have taken action in an annual social program that asks people all around the world to post pictures of onigiri, a traditional Japanese cuisine to raise money for the unfortunate children who do not have school meals to eat in Japan. This initiative is known as Onigiri Action.

Our Japanese Elective classes have contributed to this fundraiser through their interactive lesson creating onigiri balls from scratch! Students were given premium-grade rice with tasty seaweed, topped off with their own selected choice of toppings to create the delicious food. This lesson, whilst fun and engaging, had taught an important message to the students participating. The message of continuous support and communal contribution to make the lives of others a lot more bearable. Even such little contributions are not truly small to the wellbeing of others and shine a bright light of hope onto those who need it most.

Whilst the Japanese classes have already taken part in Onigiri Action, you can too! All you have to do to give another child the money to eat again is to create any onigiri of your choice and post a photo of it on as many social media platforms as you can with the hashtag “#OnigiriAction”. Please keep in mind that you must use the exact hashtag in order to take part in this movement. Thank you to all the classes that participated, all the students who put their best efforts into making these wonderful onigiri balls, and thank you to the staff who are continuously encouraging the growth of student’s being thoughtful of the poor and needy.

- Zayne Bayrich (Year 9 Japanese)

During our Year 10 Japanese class we were tasked to make onigiri for the Onigiri Action movement ,which assisted in helping those having trouble with putting food on the table. During this time, I was able to talk and have fun with my other classmates to make our own onigiris with our own fillings. We were able to make fun faces on the onigiri, wrap it our own way and were able to enjoy ourselves with others. It was a fun experience to have and wish for future Japanese students to experience this as well. 

- Calvin Mediana (Year 10 Japanese)