Friday, October 02, 2009
Volunteer interview No.3
Volunteer Interview No. 3
For the third interview of our series of Volunteer to Volunteer Interviews, Cylinda Marquart talks to Waseda University volunteer, Kanoko Uegaki about how she became involved with 2HJ and her plans for the future.
Q: How did you hear about 2HJ?
A: I’m a full-time student studying Cultural Anthropology of Sport at Waseda University but I also work part-time in a coffee shop in Chiba. From time to time we throw a lot of food away and I think, “mottainai”, or “What a waste!” That was when I heard about 2HJ from a friend of mine and started volunteering here regularly in April. I usually join in on Friday cooking activities and also help pick-up food donations. I’ve also helped serve food to recipients in Ueno Park.
Q: I’ve heard you speaking very fluent Chinese while we cut vegetables, can you tell us more about that?
A: I’ve been studying Mandarin for the last one and a half years at Waseda and in September I will move to Beijing to study at Beijing University. I’m hoping to improve my language skills as well as introduce Chinese people to Japan. After the 2008 Olympics, many young Chinese became interested in volunteering and the world around them. I’d like to meet some of these people and join their volunteer activities as well as travel. In the future, I’d like a career in the media that bridges our two countries.
Q: What does the food that 2HJ prepare taste like? I’ve heard the donuts are good!
A: The donuts and other bread we pick-up on Fridays are excellent! The soup is really tasty, too. A few months ago we served a chanko-nabe which was good enough to sell in a restaurant. The Saturday soup kitchen menu usually includes potato salad, pickles, bread, rice, soup and even dessert. This summer I’m hoping to pass out the cold ice cream!
Q: What do you like about 2HJ?
I like meeting other volunteers. We come from many different backgrounds and ages that include cooks, teachers, retirees, business people and one of our members who you can see on a TV drama as an extra.
(Postscript by Cylinda)
2HJ wishes Kanoko-san, ‘good luck & safe travels’ for her time in China. We’ll miss her sense of humor and positive attitude while she is away.
If you like this story, you might also enjoy:
Volunteer Interview No.2: Cylinda Marquart
2HJ’s new video - Thank you very much for your support!
Office Manager Masahiro Otake’s U.S. Food Bank Travelogue Vol. 1
Link to News story »
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Volunteer Interview No.2
For the second interview of our series of Volunteer to Volunteer Interviews, Watanabe-sensei talks to Friday morning participant, Cylinda Marquart about her interests in cooking and Second Harvest Japan.
Q: Why are you interested in Food banking?
A: I like food banks because I don’t like wasted food. Watching the news at night we hear about food shortages all over the world, while in developed countries we have so much food that we are throwing it away. Food banks are one way to make sure that we make good use of our resources and spread around our wealth to those who need a hand. As a child, my family and I helped out at soup kitchens for the homeless. Everyone was full of smiles and gratitude as they served and shared a meal together. At university, I’d often have “The Dollar Lunch” at a church across the street from my school. The church received food donations from local supermarkets and food distributors and cooked cheap, delicious and nutritious lunches for college students and the poor. No one was ashamed to be eating a cheap lunch, but instead they were happy that the food wasn’t being thrown away. In the last few years I’ve gotten involved with “Share Our Strength” an American food bank that wants to eradicate childhood hunger in the US. http://strength.org/
Q: Food seems to be really important to you; did something growing up make you feel this way?
A: I come from a multi-cultural family that includes French, German and Chinese. Because of my father’s work we often met other families from different countries. With so many different cultures, the one ‘universal language’ people could share was food. There would be parties with people eating American-style fried chicken and potato salad, next to Korean kimichi and German sauerkraut. I’ve seen pictures of my third birthday party, and I’m eating sushi. Food was also important to me because it was the only way I could communicate with my maternal grandmother, who is from Hong Kong. Through her very complex and elaborate Cantonese-style cooking, I had my first gourmet experience.
Q: Tell us about your time in Japan and thoughts about the food culture here.
A: I moved to Japan from Taiwan, where I had been working in publishing and broadcasting. My life had been quite fast-paced and marrying and moving to rural Fukuoka gave me time to slow down. My first friend was my neighbor who brought me vegetables from her hatake (field) and home-style Japanese food like nikku jagga and tsukemono. Ikeda-san’s food was all organic, seasonal and of course, locally-grown. Because of Ikeda-san’s perfect ingredients and all the care she took in growing vegetables I became more and more inspired to put the same kind of energy into my cooking. Ikeda-san’s secret ingredient was ‘love’; it was the same love I tasted in my grandmother’s cooking and also what I try to bring to my vegetable chopping at 2HJ.
Q: What do you do at 2HJ?
A: About two or three times a month I join the Friday morning cooking crew in chopping vegetables and preparing the ingredients for Saturday’s meal distribution. From time to time I’ll bring friends to 2HJ so they can practice their cooking skills, too. The mornings go by very quickly as we stand around the tables chopping and laughing, telling stories and adding that special ingredient to all of our cooking.
Cylinda is a writer & editor that has been living in Japan for five years. Last year she started food consulting and a personal chef service. Check out her blog of recipes and food philosophies at: http://lovesoupcooks.typepad.com/
Please read other voices from Saturday volunteers.
Link to News story »Monday, June 15, 2009
Volunteer Interview No.1
2HJ is holding an interview relay involving volunteers who are active in the Friday and Saturday programs. The premier interview features Mr. Yoshiyuki Watanabe who is one of our regular volunteers on both Fridays and Saturdays.
Former principal’s motto is “Let’s have fun!”
Yoshiyuki Watanabe, 69, has a nickname of “Sensei (teacher)” because he was a principal in Tokyo before he retired nine years ago. In his 37-year career in teaching, he worked at a Japanese continuation school in New York as well. It was a news show on TV-Asahi broadcast in April, 2008, that he learned about 2HJ.
The first volunteer work he did at 2HJ was to deliver food with Mr.Haijima, one of 2HJ staff who happened to be his pupil. Later, he helped with food delivery to care facilities. And now, Watanabe joins preparation for the soup kitchen every Friday and the soup kitchen activities on Saturdays. On Friday, he cuts vegetable all day long, and on Saturday, he sets up the working area so that other volunteers can work smoothly. He also shares his “grandpa’s knowledge” about how to handle kitchen tools and food.
“I am so happy that I can do things for others, while learning something new. It’s also nice to be able to meet various people,” Watanabe says cheerfully. He hopes that more people can help each other by having the spirit of “co-existence.” In order to do so, “we have to enjoy doing volunteer work,“ he says.
“I’m hoping that 2HJ establishes a nationwide network sometime soon,” says Watanabe who sat in on a food bank meeting held in Yamanashi. After he and 2HJ staff delivered food donated from companies in Tokyo, the car became full of potatoes and turnips from Yamanashi on the way home. Watanabe says that 2HJ faces some challenges, such as securing more drivers and cars, but his dream is growing as he warmly watches young leaders grow.
Link to News story »
Monday, November 10, 2008
New 4-ton truck added to 2HJ’s vehicles!
At long last, 2HJ has become the proud recipient of a 4-ton truck! The purchase of the truck was made possible by generous donations from NuSkin Japan. We sincerely thank NuSkin Japan for this important donation.
Soon after we received the truck, we took it down to Nagoya for a delivery. In Aichi and Mie, we delivered food to agencies in cooperation with Second Harvest Nagoya. We used to be able to deliver less than 2 tons of food at a time, but with the new truck, we can deliver more than 3 tons at a time. This means we can deliver more food in a more efficient manner.
So far, the truck has also shown outstanding performance for pickup of baby food and industrial refrigerators. Those who are most in need of food assistance are people like low-income single mother households and elderly households. They do not necessarily belong to any agencies, so one of our biggest goals is to establish a food assistance system for them. This truck represents the capacity for a big step toward that goal.
As the photos below show, this 4-ton truck really stands out in the streets. If you spot it somewhere, please wave hello to the driver!
2HJ’s new 4-ton truck
Loading the 4-ton truck
Monday, April 21, 2008
2HJ daikon harvesting event: Straight from the fields to 2HJ recipients
Pull, cut head, turn over, cut tail, set down. Pull, cut head, turn over, cut tail, set down.
What sounds like a streamlined slaughtering ritual, in reality is the daikon (i.e., Japanese white radish) harvesting routine of the 20 or so volunteers that answered 2HJ’s call to Okabe on Sunday February 24. They collected over 2 metric tons of daikon (from about 10 tons available on the field), all of which had been delivered to 2HJ’s recipients by February 27, only three days after the volunteers harvested them!
The following Sunday, March 2, a team of children (and their caretakers), aged from elementary to high school, took their turn and pitched in to harvest over 1.5 additional tons of daikon from the field. Coming from several of the homes to which 2HJ provides food, the children enjoyed the rare opportunity of harvesting their own food and eating it fresh from the field. The staff from the various participating children’s homes brought back a bounty of daikon to supplement meals at their agencies.
For 2HJ, it was the first time in its history that the organization literally lived up to its name by harvesting a field of donated vegetables. Due to this year’s early frosts, the usual daikon harvest period was cut short, leaving entire fields of the vegetable to the plough. Fortunately, one field of high-quality, mouth-watering daikon remained for 2HJ to gather.
Looking back, 2HJ’s Executive Director Charles McJilton stated: “I always wanted to bring such an event to life.” But the idea only gained momentum when 2HJ’s staff member Haijima-san revived the connection he had made with Mr. Karasawa (the main driver of this event on the Okabe community’s side) while working for a farmer in Miyazaki, Kyushu, before joining 2HJ. When the two met again after Haijima-san’s return to Tokyo, conversations about the details of vegetable cultivation eventually lead to reflections on if and how there might be opportunities for farming communities to contribute in their own way to 2HJ’s activities.
Farmers invest a tremendous amount of time and effort in growing crops and vegetables, “much like parents raising and educating their kids,” as Mr. Karasawa explains. It gives them a rather nauseous feeling watching the results of their efforts go to waste, be it because there are not enough hands available for harvesting all of it, or due to some follies of the change in season. Consequently, joining forces with 2HJ seemed like an optimal way to kill two birds with one stone: Not only did some of the yet unharvested daikon get harvested, but also there were people happily looking forward to such a highly valued addition to their menu.
Tired, cold, excited, covered from head to toe in soil blown upon us by the marrow-chilling wind and looking forward to dropping by the nearby onsen (i.e., local hot spring) before returning to Tokyo, all volunteers agreed that working in the fields and harvesting daikon with our own hands had taken the stress of city-life, at least temporarily, away from us. And, if only for a few hours, we had made the somewhat surprising discovery that country life was not all about sweet strawberries and gorgeous green meadows. The life of a farmer can be tough—and the strong winds, blinding us at times, forcing us to swallow more than the odd grain of soil and sand, served as a good example of how tough that life can be.
As the first time ran so smoothly and was a positive, educational and last but not least fun experience for all participants, 2HJ hopes to continue this newly set up collaboration with the Okabe agricultural community, and maybe even set up links to other communities in the future.
And, as 2HJ is now looking into converting this originally one-off event into a regular, maybe twice-a-year activity, I am looking forward to another of those rare opportunities where I get to work with my hands. Maybe I will be allowed once more the occasional glimpse to the panorama of the snow-covered Northern Alps rising at the horizon. No doubt at the end of another such day I will again fall into my bed with a rare but soothing, satisfactory feeling of having accomplished a truly productive day.
Writer/Photographer: Pamela Ravasio
Link to News story »RSS
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