Sunday, March 16, 2008
Friday food preparation: An unglamorous but important job
Come see what we’re cooking up: Rice, potato salad, fried eggs, pickled vegetables, and a tureen of hot soup!
This is the meal we hand out every Saturday at Ueno Park through the 2HJ Saturday Soup Kitchen—give or take a few minor variations depending on what’s on hand week to week. Sounds pretty appetizing, doesn’t it?
We serve over 400 hot meals every Saturday, which adds up to a lot of cooking. Since it all has to be ready by lunchtime on Saturday, we have to start our preparations on the day before that. That’s where the “Friday volunteer gang” comes in.
Every Friday morning at nine o’clock, volunteers begin to gather outside the 2HJ office. Two long tables and several large gas cookers are set up on the sidewalk, the volunteers grab knives and cutting boards, and the cookout begins. First, they cut the fresh vegetables for salads and soup.
Next, they light up the gas cookers, boil some water, and throw in the frozen mixed vegetables and komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach), along with any meats, eggs and potatoes that we might have that day.
All the cooking is done outdoors. It can get chilly in the winter months, but the mood is always relaxed and cheerful. When passers-by ask what we are doing and what all the vegetables are for, that gives us a chance to tell them a little about 2HJ and the soup kitchen.
All sorts of people come and volunteer their time: housewives, university students, parents with their kids, foreigners of all kinds, and business people on leave or between jobs. Their reasons for volunteering and how often they can come varies as widely as age and religious beliefs, but at the long tables everyone works as one. Each individual task is simple which means that we can all enjoy each other’s conversation and company without slowing the prep work.
“Some people are born on this Earth with a purpose from up above—people like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Jakucho Setouchi. If this is true, then Charles (2HJ Executive Director) might have a destiny like that too. That thought was what inspired me to start volunteering at 2HJ,” explains Elsa Mission, who has been volunteering her time and preparing food every Friday for almost a year. “Some countries on Earth have an abundance of food, and others are in desperate need. I believe that sharing love with other people is what makes life meaningful.”
Almost all of the food used in the Hot Meal Program is received as donations. 2HJ only purchases minimal condiments and seasonings.
When food that was destined for disposal is donated to 2HJ instead, most of the food is distributed as-is to agencies like orphanages, women’s shelters, and elderly homes, who provide it to those in need. Elsa and the other Friday cookout volunteers also prepare a portion of the donated food for the Saturday Soup Kitchen, where it becomes part of a meal served directly to people in need of nutrition and sustenance.
Stepping out of a society where meals go to waste and into another in which unwanted food is redistributed to those in need. When companies and individuals take the time to reexamine what it means to “be a member of society,” exciting new things are possible. Won’t you join us, and help us make them happen?
Writer/Photographer: Yukari Yoshida
Link to News story »Saturday, March 01, 2008
2HJ expands capacity with new space
March 1, 2008 was a milestone for 2HJ: we were able to nearly double our previous warehouse capacity by renting one of the railway arches diagonally across the street from our current office.
We would like to express our gratitude to NuSkin Japan for their support, thanks to which this next chapter in 2HJ’s history has become a reality.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Harvest News: 2008 Issue No. 1
Harvest News, Second Harvest Japan’s newsletter, contains stories and information related to 2HJ and food banking in Japan. Download this color version to share with friends, family, and coworkers!
Contents for 2008 Issue No. 1 include:
-What is a food drive?
-School food drives
-Welcome, Daniel!
-Farewell and thanks, Michelle!
-Charity concert review
-2HJ news bites
Click to view Harvest News 2008 No. 1 [PDF: 1,184 KB]
Link to News story »Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Harvest Pantry’s New Year’s Resolution: Gain Kilos
Harvest Pantry gained over 2,000 kilos over the holidays! This huge gain came in the form of canned and non-perishable food donated from school food drives.
Thanks to six schools in the Tokyo area last December, awareness, good will, and thousands of food items were raised for the Harvest Pantry. The American School in Japan (ASIJ) collected 750 kilos, Tokyo Korean School (TKS) 500 kilos, Nishimachi International School over 300 kilos, Camp Zama Middle School 250 kilos, Canadian Academy 280 kilos, and Seisen International School about 200 kilos.
Second Harvest Japan Executive Director Charles E. McJilton commented, “It is neat to see students make active contributions to the community. It helps them make a connection between their daily lives and those out there in need in Japan. It also reminds them that they can have a positive impact in the community they live in.”
In 2007, TKS doubled the food amount they collected from the previous year. To motivate their elementary students, they gave lottery tickets out for each item brought in and drew three winners at the end of the food drive. In addition, the teachers performed a dance routine to reward the students for collecting more than 2,000 food items.
Photo: Tokyo Korean School
TKS teacher Mark Valens said, “Students have positive memories about donating food to Second Harvest Japan, and they come away feeling good about themselves for making a difference in someone’s life. Nothing is better than that.”
In its sixth year of helping the hungry, ASIJ weighed in heavy. “Loading 750 kilos of food items in 2HJ’s truck was like trying to solve a rubik’s cube,” stated ASIJ Middle School Assistant Principal Meagan Pavey. “The sheer volume of food collected and all four divisions at ASIJ working together as a community were highlights this year.”
Photo: Meagan Pavey
At ASIJ, each division’s student government decided how food would be collected. The middle school’s Student Leadership Team held a competition between homerooms. Mr. Harris’s homeroom won. The group of 13 said, “We all tried our hardest. We thought about the people with no food, and we wanted them to have food for the holiday. Everybody should care about others.”
And it’s easy to do. Here are some pointers to run a successful food drive at your school, club, organization, sports team, or other community group.
- Contact 2HJ in advance to discuss needs and logistics
- Remember people are hungry all year round. Consider organizing food drives multiple times in a year
- Set clear start/end dates
- Quality control: Check collected items during and at the end of the food drive, and remove any expired or opened items. Since these items cannot be distributed, if donated they become a costly burden rather than a useful donation. Make this clear to students at the beginning
- Add the element of competition: Have classes/grades compete to see who can collect the most food
- Make it visible: Assign students to make eye-catching bulletin boards and decorated collection boxes
- Keep everyone posted: Post a tally sheet to show the amount of food collected in various categories so students can see what is still needed
- Hold kick-off and wrap-up events to educate students on hunger in Japan and to share the results
Writer: kmh
Link to News story »Monday, January 21, 2008
What is a food drive and how can you be a part of one?
A “food drive” is a volunteer activity in which people bring unneeded extra food from their homes to their school or office, where it is collected and distributed to local charitable organizations, facilities, and food banks. Food drives have been run successfully since the 1960s in the United States, where they originated, but in Japan the concept of food drives remains unfamiliar to many.
Over the past few years, however, this has gradually begun to change and food drives at work and school have become more common. Curves Japan, which owns and operates the women’s fitness club chain “Curves,” ran a food drive campaign in November 2007 calling on members at all of its 600 locations across Japan to bring food in.
Requiring only that the items be unopened, non-perishable at room temperature, and with an expiration date of February 2008 or later, Curves reportedly collected about 50 tons of rice, coffee, tea, sweets, and other canned, dry, and instant food items. This was then distributed to 300 local child-care facilities, churches, and single-parent support organizations.
Curves Japan found that many of their contributing members had wished for a long time that they could offer some assistance to those around them in need, but had simply never seen or had an opportunity to do so before the food drive. As volunteer activities that are easy to participate in and offer a direct connection to the local community, food drives are surely only going to become more popular as time goes on and people in Japan become more familiar with the concept.
Second Harvest Japan (2HJ) is delighted to offer know-how and advice for organizations running food drives or who would like to host a food drive. Food drives of various kinds have already been run in the Japanese offices of many major multinational companies. One international IT firm’s Japan branch ran a “rice drive,” asking their employees to bring rice to the office. Another company launched a food drive after a 2HJ volunteer who worked there made the suggestion to management.
“We bought too much canned food on sale and I don’t think we can finish it…”
“Our family receives so many gifts of tea that we just can’t drink it all…”
...Are you sure there isn’t any extra food lying around like this in your kitchen too? Why wait for it to pass its expiration date and be thrown out when you could put it to good use in a food drive?
Writer: Etsuko Ohara
Photos: Curves Japan
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