Friday, December 29, 2006
2HJ Board Member: Kousaku Shibata
“If someone needs food, wherever they are, I’ll deliver it imagining the smile it will bring to their face.”
In his role as a long-time 2HJ driver, board member Kousaku Shibata plays an important role in linking companies who donate food and people who need it. Three times a week, he spends about an hour to drive his minivan from his house in Ichikawa city, Chiba, up to Costco Wholesale supermarket in Makuhari. From Costco, Kousaku receives donations of food that is still edible but is about to be disposed of because of overstocking or label misprints.
He receives various kinds of food, including vegetables, fruit, bread, and sweets. After carefully loading the donated food, which sometimes exceeds 500 kilograms, on some days Kousaku brings the load to the 2HJ warehouse in Asakusabashi, Tokyo. On other days, he distributes the food to agencies such as churches, orphanages, and elderly care centers, which support people who have difficulty in obtaining food in a socially acceptable manner.
“If someone needs me, I will go anywhere,” says Kousaku. With his contribution, 2HJ has visited more than 100 agencies in the past four years.
“People think Japan is a rich country,” he continues, “but actually there are many people who have serious trouble in securing meals. Many of them really cannot live without food from 2HJ. I do all I can to avoid skipping deliveries for any reason.”
People applying for asylum as refugees in Japan have a particularly tough time. Every week Kousaku makes 20-kilo food packages and sends them by courier service to 12 families that are struggling to get by.
Kousaku says he always imagines their smiles when they receive the packages, thinking, “What kind of food would that family like?” or “I bet he’ll like this fruit.”
Kousaku volunteered at the soup kitchen of Mother Teresa’s convent in Nagoya when he lived there 10 years ago. He saw the waste of huge amounts of useable food being disposed of at supermarkets and convenience stores every day. They made hundreds of servings at the soup kitchen by salvaging this food.
Four years ago, a friend of his in Tokyo, Charles McJilton, was establishing a food bank. Kousaku encouraged him, saying, “That’s very important. You’ve got to do it!” Since Charles didn’t have a valid Japanese driver’s license at that time, Kousaku volunteered to drive for him and quickly became an indispensable driver for 2HJ.
As a part-time postal worker, Kousaku spends his evenings from 18:00 to 22:00 at the post office and volunteers for 2HJ during the day. 2HJ reimburses him for expenses such as gasoline fees and courier service fees, but he receives no salary for himself. “I’m just doing what I can do,” he says as if his work is no big deal. But his first two years of volunteering were difficult for him both physically and mentally.
“Once I went through that time, it became my custom and my body adjusted. Now I can enjoy the activity and look forward to seeing what kind of food we get from donors.”
Seisei and Kousaku Shibata have been with 2HJ since its earliest days.
Kousaku’s wife, Seisei, chose a minivan when they bought a new car because she knew the car could be useful for 2HJ activities. Since the Nagoya days and through the beginning of 2HJ establishment, Seisei has been Kousaku’s ideal partner.
They both recall, “We’ve met so many people and heard their stories. When we hear the miserable stories of refugees we feel sad, but also sometimes we can see a family loving and helping each other. Sometimes the recipients welcome us with singing and dancing. They make us spiritually rich.”
About the future of 2HJ, Kousaku says, “We shouldn’t rush and try to increase the volume too rapidly.”
“Since we give people food, we as volunteers need to be sensitive to the subtleties of recipients’ feelings. We’re not just delivering food. We should value the process of building relationships with recipients slowly but steadily.”
Writer/Photo: Etusko Ohara
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