Get Allergen Information and School Lunch Menus on LINE! Fukuoka City LINE Official Account now includes a “Safe School Lunch Management” feature
Striving for 0 allergy-related school lunch incidents in elementary schools
LINE Corporation (“LINE”; Location: Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo; Representative Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer: Takeshi Idezawa) and its Fukuoka-based subsidiary, LINE Fukuoka Corporation (“LINE Fukuoka”; Location: Hakata Ward, Fukuoka; Representative Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer: Noritaka Ochiai) are pleased to announce that a new “Safe School Lunch Management” (あんしん給食管理) feature for receiving Fukuoka City school lunch menu information and allergen notifications has been added to Fukuoka City LINE Official Account as of Thursday, August 20, 2020.
LINE Fukuoka concluded a verification testing agreement with Fukuoka City and the Institute of Systems, Information Technologies and Nanotechnologies (Chairperson: Masayoshi Nuki) aiming to promote the use of open data, and this feature is the first step towards that goal.
As of May 1, 2019, 3.1% ¹ of Fukuoka City elementary school students have food allergies, and preventing allergy-related incidents in school lunches has become a pressing issue.
¹ Information provided by: Fukuoka City
Parents and teachers are given a detailed menu (詳細献立表) each month to manage allergens and prevent allergy incidents in school lunches. However, these menus are checked by individuals, so the risk of overlooking something is high. The burden of checking ingredients at home or school is also an issue.
In order to resolve these issues surrounding food allergies in elementary school lunches, Fukuoka City LINE Official Account introduced the Safe School Lunch Management feature, which offers the following services.
■ Receive advance notification on days where school lunch menus include allergens
By setting the name of your child’s school, what they are allergic to, and when you want to receive notifications, you will be notified of the school lunch menu and allergen information on days where the lunch contains something your child is allergic to. These notifications reduce the burden of checking the allergen lists for school lunches that were previously sent out each month and lower the risk of overlooking something.
Even if your child does not have allergies, you can simply get their school lunch menu on LINE if you set the name of their school and a notification time.
■ Prepare food smoothly with the ability to search for school lunch menus on LINE anytime, anywhere
If you select a date from the calendar displayed in the LINE chat, you can see the school lunch menu for that day. Even if you do not have the printed menu with you, it can be checked on LINE, so shopping for other meals is a breeze. By preventing overlap between meals at home and school, it is easier to ensure that meals provide a healthy nutritional balance.
■ Video –
Registering information and seeing detailed school lunch menus
https://youtu.be/O5HJj4PbHiY
■ Video – Receiving an allergen notification
https://youtu.be/YNp3nA9H5Eg
Through this initiative, we are striving to contribute to the prevention of food allergy-related incidents in Fukuoka City elementary school lunches.
Moving forward, LINE Fukuoka will continue to utilize LINE’s technology and know-how to solve the everyday problems that residents face, making their lives even fuller and more convenient.
■ About Fukuoka City LINE Official Account
Following the conclusion of the “Information Provision Fortification Tie-up Agreement” between LINE and Fukuoka City, LINE Fukuoka set up Fukuoka City LINE official account on April 25, 2017.
At first, the account was a way for users to select and receive only the information they wanted by customizing the account’s information categories and residential area settings in advance. Today, chatbots and features to send your location information are also being used in the account.
The “Evacuation Action Support” (避難行動支援) feature helps people prepare for disasters and allows them to share evacuation information with their loved ones. With the “Infrastructure Report” (道路公園等通報) feature, residents can report damage to infrastructure they find to the city.
Users can also find out how to throw away garbage using the “Garbage Separation Support” (ごみ分別案内) feature, which lets them freely enter garbage types (such as batteries or pottery) into the message field. The account (which currently has 1.69 million registered friends) also lets residents use the “Childcare Assistance Feature” to instantly search for nearby “Baby Stations” (such as for breastfeeding), and other features are offered to provide services that are closely related to daily life.
■ Reference – About the Institute of Systems, Information Technologies and Nanotechnologies (ISIT)
ISIT was established in 1995 as a telecommunication technology and nanotechnology research facility. In April 2013, the institute began Kyushu Big Data & Open Data Initiative (BODIK) activities and developed an API platform for the promotion and use of open data by regional governments. In January 2020, ISIT launched the BODIK Digital Transformation (DX) project to promote digital transformation centered around Fukuoka and its regional businesses.