Contribution to local communities
As a food company, the Calbee Group is strengthening its connections with stakeholders in the areas of environment (nature’s gifts), food (flavor and fun), and health (healthy lifestyles), collaborating with them to maintain sustainable, abundant natural environments and thriving societies in communities and confront social problems such as relieving anxieties over people’s ability to live healthy, prosperous lives.
Main initiatives
- Promotion of forest protection activities
- Support activities for events that everyone can enjoy, including individuals with disabilities
- Product donations to food banks and the Japan National Council of Social Welfare
- Support for disaster-affected areas
- Supporting the Japan Association for the World Food Programme (JAWFP) as a councilor
- Overseas social contribution activities
- "Calbee Forest 1" acquired in Borneo
Promotion of forest protection activities
The Calbee Group utilizes a large amount of potatoes, nature's gift. Growing potatoes requires a large amount of water. The Calbee Group engages in forest protection activities in the Calbee Mina Mina Forest (Chitose, Hokkaido), Calbee Forest (Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture), Calbee Tochigi Nature’s Gift Forest (Nasukarasuyama, Tochigi Prefecture), Aichi Kaisho Forest (Seto, Aichi Prefecture), Calbee Shiga Konze Forest (Ritto, Shiga Prefecture), and Nature’s Gift Calbee Kappa Forest (Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture) with the aim of developing and maintaining sustainable water resources and promoting forest development in disaster-afflicted areas. These activities are carried out by the employees themselves, which serves to remind them of the gifts of nature and of the responsibilities involved in using precious groundwater. In 2024, the Group participated in the Hachioji Kamikawanosato, a project to maintain and promote the use of forests in Hachioji, Tokyo.
Promotion of forest protection activities
Activities at Hachioji Kamikawanosato (Hachioji, Tokyo)
Support activities for events that everyone can enjoy, including individuals with disabilities
We sponsor and volunteer at events such as Za Fitness®, a sports event that everyone can enjoy, including individuals with disabilities, as well as SJE Marche, which provides opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to gain work experience. We help people from diverse backgrounds interact with and learn about each other to realize a society where everyone can live life to the fullest.
Volunteer work at Za Fitness® (Photo courtesy of NPO Accessible Lab)
Volunteering at SJE Marche (Photo courtesy of SJE Marche Executive Committee)
Product donations to food banks and the Japan National Council of Social Welfare
The Calbee Group works with food banks and the Japan National Council of Social Welfare to make effective use of its excess products. These initiatives not only support those in need but also enable us to reduce food loss.
We delivered Calbee products to people affected by the earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula in January 2024. We also donated disaster relief funds to Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, which suffered from forest fires in 2025, to support those who were affected and also for the restoration of the afflicted area.
Delivering Calbee products to disaster-affected areas in Wajima (Photo courtesy of Good Neighbors Japan)
Support for disaster-affected areas
The MICHINOKU Future Fund is a scholarship fund to support the educational advancement of children who lost one or both parents in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Jointly established by Kagome Co., Ltd., ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Calbee (later joined by Ebara Foods Industry, Inc.), it carries out various support activities. Thanks to the tremendous support from the general public, donations to the MICHINOKU Future Fund reached the target amount needed to offer scholarships in the future. It, therefore, stopped accepting new donations in February 2021. We will continue to support MICHINOKU scholars by organizing events that help them build friendships and providing counseling opportunities even after they advance to higher education.
MICHINOKU Future Fund logo
Supporting the Japan Association for the World Food Programme (JAWFP) as a councilor
Calbee supports the activities of the Japan Association for the World Food Programme (JAWFP) and has been a JAWFP councilor since 2019. JAWFP is the official support desk in Japan for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), whose mission is to end hunger and poverty. In FY2024, Calbee co-sponsored the WFP Walk the World and Gochisosama Challenge. We also made donations through our own AAO activities.
Participating in WFP Walk the World
Overseas social contribution activities
Calbee Tanawat Co., Ltd. (Thailand) carried out the following two activities as part of the Calbee Arigatou Social Project.
Supporting the sound growth of children
Implementation of school lunch programs focusd on food education, painting of school walls, and landscape improvements at a local elementary school (Samut Prakan Province)
School meals
Painting school walls and improving landscape
Cleaning, repairing, and painting houses in the flood-affected area of Chiang Rai
Delivering hope to disaster victims
"Calbee Forest 1" acquired in Borneo
We support the “Green Corridor Project” of the Borneo Conservation Trust Japan (BCTJ), which protects tropical rainforests on Borneo Island in Malaysia, a major producer of palm oil essential for snack food production. This project aims to conserve tropical rainforests by repurchasing and managing land that has been cleared and fragmented for agriculture. In 2023, we acquired Calbee Forest 1, which is approximately 1.4 hectares, under the project.
Borneo (Photo courtesy of Borneo Conservation Trust Japan)