Chinese Name: 明日餐桌環境廚房
Establishment: 2017
Founder: Yang Chi-hsi (楊七喜)
Address: No. 46, Ln. 18, Sec. 2, Sanmin Rd., Central Dist., Taichung City
Official Website: https://www.dishoftomorrow.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/7upkitchen/?locale=zh_TW
Did You Know That…?
Formerly known as 7C Kitchen (七喜廚房), Dish of Tomorrow (明日餐桌環境廚房) is a restaurant dedicated to reducing food waste to provide meals for those in need. Founder Yang Chi-hsi and a team of volunteers collect surplus food from markets every day and turn it into delicious dishes.
After graduating from high school, Yang Chi-hsi worked more than 20 different jobs. During that time, she became increasingly aware of social issues. Wanting to use her skills to help those in need, she began designing and producing custom-printed paper tapes featuring social messages at the age of 28. She donated the earnings from these tapes to charity. While working on this project, she considered distributing her product to homeless individuals to sell. However, Yang questioned whether this approach would genuinely benefit them. Believing that direct engagement was crucial, she decided to meet and interact with disadvantaged individuals in person.
While working with the homeless, a volunteer introduced her to organic vegetable vendors at a market. She found out the enormous amount of surplus food that went to waste every day. Determined to address this issue, Yang set out to repurpose edible leftovers into nutritious meals. She shared her vision of “pay-what-you-can” on a Facebook post, which consequently made her newly opened 7C Kitchen turning into one of the few restaurants in Taiwan committed to solving the problem of food waste.
The restaurant’s original name, 7C Kitchen–phonetically similar to Yang’s name, “Chi-his,” in Mandarin–was later changed into “Dish of Tomorrow” because Yang does not wish that people would only regard this restaurant as her personal branding. She hopes it would inspire others to join the movement toward zero food waste and a better future. Revenue from the meal sales also funds a shelter for the homeless, giving them a great support to rebuild their lives.
To get more people involved in her social campaign, Yang strategically promoted her mission. She uses social media and an app to disseminate her idea, raising public awareness about food waste and showing how surplus food was collected in the market and turned into meals in the restaurant.
The app also helps to connect her customers as well as streamlining data collection from market vendors and the local department of environment protection. In addition, Yang collaborates with vendors to sell their excess produce through the app. “Food waste not only depletes of water and land resources but also generates a large amount of greenhouse gas emission,” Yang once stated. “Reducing food waste is critical for the environment, and it requires ongoing collective effort.”