11th Northern California Soy and Tofu Festival
Schedule
Sat Jun 03 2023 at 11:00 am to 05:00 pm
Location
Japantown Peace Plaza San Francisco | San Francisco, CA
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WHAT: 11th Northern California Soy and Tofu FestivalWHEN: Saturday, June 3, 2022, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: Peace Plaza, Post at Buchanan streets, San Francisco’s Japantown
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The Northern California Soy and Tofu Festival, a celebration of the joy of soy, returns Saturday, June 3, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., to San Francisco Japantown’s Peace Plaza, Post at Buchanan streets.
While the event is a signature fundraiser for the Nichi Bei Foundation, supporting the publication of the Nichi Bei News — the first nonprofit ethnic community newspaper of its kind in the country — this year, the Nichi Bei Foundation will once again be donating partial proceeds to the Nikkei Community Internship and Japantown Youth Leaders programs, administered in Northern California by the Japanese Community Youth Council.
“The Soy and Tofu Festival has been a vehicle for community-building and leadership development,” Taguma said. “The Nikkei Community Internship program — which is designed to develop future community leaders by placing them in summer internships at nonprofits throughout three Japantowns — and the Japantown Youth Leaders is aligned with that vision. We are proud to be able to give back a little to a program that has benefitted us with countless interns and volunteers over the years.”
The festival will feature new soy and tofu vendors such as:
• Uji Time Dessert (Tofu soft serve ice cream in taiyaki cones and waffle cones, tofu pudding with sugar cane juice, soy milk)
• Ohana Floral Sweets (Shoyu caramel hojicha mochi, matcha mochi, flower vegan jellies)
• Kahnfections Bakery (Miso Caramel Bread Pudding, Matcha Tofu Cheesecakes, Arare Cookies)
• Pop Nation (Sea Salted Dark Chocolate Popsicle made with Soy Milk, and other flavors)
And returning food vendors:
• Kikkoman (soy milk and sauces)
• Morinaga Nutritional Foods (Strawberry Banana Tofu Smoothies, and Yuzu and Edamame tofu)
• Hodo Soy (Miso Tofu and Indian Spiced Tofu)
• Bachan’s Japanese Barbecue Sauce
• Nichi Bei Café, featuring Mabo Dofu (turkey and Impossible Pork), Inarizushi
• Pine United Methodist Church Wafu Dogs
In addition to free soy and tofu samples, food vendors, live performances and artisan vendors, there will be audience participation games and children’s activities.
There will also be a raffle featuring a Grand Prize of $1,000, a second prize of a $500 Amazon gift card, and a third prize of a $250 Apple gift card, among many others.
There will be live performances by:
• World jazz ensemble Asian Crisis (a special reunion concert featuring Art Hirahara and Mas Koga from New York)
• Singer Larissa Lam and rapper Only Won from Southern California
• Kei Lun Martial Arts Lion Dance group
• Sakara Ren (Awa Odori)
• Wesley Ukulele Band from San Jose’s Japantown
• Members Even after Nice acapella group
• Koyasan Spirit of Children Taiko group from Sacramento
There will also be special appearances by the festival’s popular mascot, Cutie Tofutti.
The event will be emceed by NBC Bay Area Weekday Traffic Anchor Mike Inouye.
Admission is FREE and open to the public.
Proceeds to benefit the Nichi Bei Foundation, publishers of the nonprofit Japanese American community newspaper, the Nichi Bei Weekly. Partial proceeds benefit the Nikkei Community Internship program, administered by the Japanese Community Youth Council.
This year’s Presenting Sponsor is the Japan Center Malls East and West. Platinum Sponsor is Grants for the Arts.
Other sponsors include
• Raffle Sponsor Kinjiro and Eiko Moriguchi Fund
• Silver Sponsors Bachan’s and Kikkoman
• Bronze Sponsors PG&E, California Bank and Trust, US Bank, and the Japantown Community Benefit District
Media sponsors include NBC Bay Area, Crossings TV, Korea Times, BaySpo and Nichi Bei News.
In addition to sponsors Kikkoman and Bachan’s, Morinaga, Hodo Foods, Pietro and Impossible Foods will be donating products. In-kind trash services provided by Nor Cal Green Works and San Francisco Department of Parks and Recreation.
For more information, visit: www.soyandtofufest.org.
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About the Nichi Bei Foundation and the Nichi Bei News
As the historic Nichi Bei Times board of directors decided to close the newspaper after 63 years in September of 2009, a group of Nichi Bei Times staff and contributing writers, media professionals and community leaders set out to rebuild in the pioneering spirit of Japanese immigrants. They established the Nichi Bei Foundation, an educational and charitable nonprofit organization, as a means to support community organizations, shed light on community issues and document the community’s history.
Just one week after the last edition of the Nichi Bei Times rolled off the presses, the very first edition of the Nichi Bei Weekly was published as the first nonprofit ethnic community newspaper of its kind in the country. It was rebranded as the Nichi Bei News in January of 2023.
The Nichi Bei Foundation has evolved to organize an annual Films of Remembrance event — screening films related to the forced relocation and incarceration of the Japanese American community during World War II — and presents pilgrimages to the former Angel Island Immigration Station and Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, the first sizeable settlement of Japanese . In February of 2022, the Nichi Bei Foundation launched the “Nichi Bei Café,” a monthly livestream program featuring “a mixed plate of Japanese American news and culture.”
Born in one of the worst economic climates in decades, with virtually no seed money, the pioneering rebirth of the Nichi Bei Foundation and the Nichi Bei newspaper has become one of the most inspired community movements in recent memory, continuing a tradition of community leadership through media. Inspired by a community-serving historical legacy dating back to the Nichi Bei Shimbun in 1899, the Nichi Bei Foundation and the Nichi Bei News have a simple yet profound mission: to keep the community connected, informed and empowered.
This year marks the 14th anniversary of the Nichi Bei Foundation / Nichi Bei News, and the 124th anniversary of the Nichi Bei legacy of community leadership through media altogether.
For more information about the Nichi Bei Foundation or the Nichi Bei News, visit: www.nichibei.org or www.nichibeifoundation.org.
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Where is it happening?
Japantown Peace Plaza San Francisco, 1610 Geary Blvd,San Francisco,CA,United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays: