Support for the Healthy Growth of Children

Funding for School Meals in Developing Countries

One in three children in developing countries suffers from chronic malnutrition. NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS and NISSIN FROZEN FOODS participate in the Red Cup campaign to provide school meals to children in developing countries, donating a portion of sales of designated products to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
In addition, we provide funding for school meals in developing countries through the Hyakufukushi Project and sponsorship of various events.

Donations to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

Cumulative Total from FY 3/2013

Approximately ¥ 333 million*

• *The designated products are NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS’s CHICKEN RAMEN, CHICKEN RAMEN Donburi, and Zero-second CHICKEN RAMEN, as well as NISSIN FROZEN FOODS’s CHICKEN RAMEN Kin-no-Chahan.

Improvement of Education Environment through the Bellmark Campaign

NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS has been selling products with the Bellmark symbol since 1961. The Bellmark Campaign is an initiative of the Bellmark Educational Support Foundation in which companies and consumers join together in providing school educational materials and equipment. Each point is converted to ¥ 1, and the proceeds are used to purchase necessary educational materials and equipment for schools.

Emergency Food Aid through WINA

Support for the Activities to Eradicate Hunger through JA WFP

Ando Foundation

Momofuku Ando, the founder of NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS, established the Ando Foundation with his personal funds in 1983 in the belief that “Eating and sports are the two axles of health.” The foundation’s main activities are support for track and field events, promotion of nature activities, operation of the CUPNOODLES MUSEUMS, and an awards program that encourages creative foundational research and solid developments that lead to the creation of new food products. The NISSIN FOODS Group endorses the principles of the Ando Foundation and enthusiastically supports its activities.

Interactive Educational Food Museums

The Ando Foundation operates the CUPNOODLES MUSEUM (official name: The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum), interactive educational food museums in Ikeda City, Osaka Prefecture and Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The museums provide fun opportunities to learn about creative thinking by Momofuku Ando, the founder of NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS, and the importance of invention and discovery.
The museums feature exhibits related to the invention and development of instant noodles, the Chicken Ramen Factory, where visitors make noodles by hand from flour, and the My CUPNOODLES Factory, where visitors select a soup and ingredients to create their own original CUP NOODLESS.

• Top: CUPNOODLES MUSEUM OSAKA IKEDA
• Bottom: CUPNOODLES MUSEUM YOKOHAMA

Support for Sports

Since 2015, the Ando Foundation, together with the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, has conducted the Ando Foundation Global Challenge Project to support overseas competition by young track and field athletes. The project supports unsponsored individuals age 16 or older who aspire to win medals in international track and field competitions, helping them to use long school vacations to gain valuable experience at environments that draw world-class athletes.
In addition, we cooperated with the Japan Basketball Association to establish the U18 NISSIN LEAGUE in 2022, supporting the development, intensive training, and spread of basketball players who are high-school students. In the past, basketball competitions for those under 18 years old mainly took the form of tournaments. A league format ensures a certain number of matches to be played, and the schedules of matches and the teams involved are predetermined. This allows high-quality preparations to be made for matches. Offering the same type of competition environment as professional athletes helps those under 18 years old to further improve their competition skills.
Since 2023, we are also supporting the Ando Foundation Global Challenge Jr. Tennis organized by the Japan Tennis Association. This is a program that aims to discover athletes with hidden potential capable of performing at the global level and let them develop the qualities needed as top athletes at an early stage. Under the program, activities—such as the organizing of camps in Japan and sending of participants on overseas trips—are conducted for a pair of 11-year-old boy and girl from each of the 47 prefectures (total of 94 children). The program includes interactions with top athletes active in Japan and overseas, small-group training by legendary coaches, and workshops to develop their attitudes as athletes.

SHOKUSOKAI That Supports New Food Creation

Based on NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS founder Momofuku Ando’s philosophy “Create foods to serve society,” the Ando Foundation founded the SHOKUSOKAI in 1996 to promote the creation of new food products and contribute toward the development of the foods industry.
Under the SHOKUSOKAI, the Momofuku Ando Awards recognizes creative researchers, developers, and venture entrepreneurs who contribute to the invigoration of food science and the creation and development of new food products. This initiative supports the activities of researchers, developers, and entrepreneurs with a grand prize of ¥ 10 million and awards of excellence of ¥ 2 million as well as invention and discovery encouragement awards of 1 million yen awarded as an extra prize for young researchers and developers working at small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Scholarship for Graduate Students Who Work on the Development of Food Science

With a desire not to let the COVID-19 pandemic impede food science innovation, the Ando Foundation and NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS established the NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS and Momofuku Ando Scholarship which supports graduate students who undertake research that contributes toward the development of food science. Since FY 3/2022, scholarships with an annual value of ¥ 1 million are given to 100 graduate students. Support is being provided for the development of human resources taking on the development and invigoration of food science based on Momofuku Ando’s philosophy "Create foods to serve society".

Study to Help Improve Food Culture

Starting from fiscal 2023, the Ando Foundation has been undertaking a study project for the development of an indication for subjective wellbeing in the area of food to help research and development that contribute to the improvement of food culture. By making the data collected through the study widely available to the public, the foundation advances the research and development of researchers and entrepreneurs and contributes to the further development of food culture.