Monday, November 12, 2007
Harvest for Hunger 2007: Looking Ahead to 2HJ’s New Horizons
On October 16, 102 people attended the yearly 2HJ Harvest for Hunger event, hosted at Fujimama’s in Omotesando. Information was available on 2HJ’s mission and goals, how to get involved, and the Harvest Pantry Program.
Harvest for Hunger participants enjoying the offered food while updating themselves on 2HJ’s activities.
Charles McJilton, Yusuke Wada, Michelle Ryan, and Patricia Decker provided insights into the good work 2HJ is doing now and upcoming plans. Michelle shared how the Harvest Pantry Program, which supports families with emergency perishable and non-perishable food, was pivotal in helping a hungry mother and her two hungry children. After leaving an abusive relationship, this young mother was forced not only to forgo meals herself, but to ask her 6 year old child to be patient so she could feed her 3 year old. “I was told [by the employees at a women’s shelter that had housed the family temporarily] how devastated she was to have to do this, knowing her child was going hungry,” Michelle recalled. “It’s stories like hers that remind us how important Harvest Pantry is.” In cooperation with the women’s shelter, the Harvest Pantry Program provided crucial support that helped her get back on her feet in only a few months.
Harvest Pantry has been a success since its inception three years ago. Initially, it delivered holiday packages to nearly 100 families. A mere year later, the Harvest Pantry had evolved into a comprehensive program that serves 80+ families and individuals, including some 50 children, on a regular basis.
“My first-grader needs so many new things for school, it’s really a stretch. [The Harvest Pantry] is such a big help. Thank you.”
The next step, and this year’s endeavour, is the first-ever nationwide food drive. In partnership with Curves Japan (as footnote http://www.curves.co.jp/), a women’s fitness club founded in America, food will be donated and collected at each of the over 560 Curves branches throughout Japan. Up to now, these items would have needed to be shipped for redistribution to Tokyo or to the location of one of our collaborating agencies.
Currently, 2HJ is contacting potential pantry collaborators nationwide individually. It is our goal to have for each of the 47 prefectures in Japan, pantry collaborators so the donated food can be directly delivered within the same prefecture and find its way to the hungry in need.
This monumental step is not a one-off event, but an effort towards putting one more puzzle piece in 2HJ’s long-term strategy of establishing a national pantry system where anyone in need can get emergency food in their own local community, be it in Hokkaido, Tokyo, or Okinawa.
This is exciting work, and we need your help. 2HJ would like to ask you to share our good work with your family and friends. Specifically, do you have acquaintances, friends, family or other contacts in prefectures across the country that may be interested and willing to serve as a local pantry provider? Do you know people in need that could profit from a national pantry system in their communities? If so—tell them about our efforts to establish a nationwide pantry system and support us in getting first the word and then the food out to where it is needed most.
For questions and ideas on the Harvest Pantry Program or our efforts to establish a nationwide pantry system please contact us at / 03-3838-3827.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Welcome aboard, Haijima-san, 2HJ’s new part-time staff member!
In order to redistribute food donated by companies and individuals to even more people in need, 2HJ recently added Haijima-san to its staff as a part-timer!
Q: How did you find out about 2HJ?
“Before starting to work at my previous company, I saw a documentary on food banking, which is where I first learned of the concept. I was interested in how the idea worked, and wondered whether that kind of system would work in Japan. Then I found out about 2HJ on the Internet and thought that I’d like to get involved after leaving my current job.”
Q: Why did you decide to work at 2HJ?
“I was working at a food-related company. I was discarding things on a daily basis—call it waste or call it a part of the flow of the big system, but things that didn’t fit the desired shape had to be discarded—and I found myself getting used to throwing out food as if it were nothing. That was when I got motivated to see what I could do about the situation. “I quit my job and spent five months working in farming in Miyazaki Prefecture. I realized there that growing crops and raising animals is hard work. “As I learned about 2HJ, and thought about how the food must feel at being thrown away on a large scale, I thought I’d like to help expand food banking and awareness of it, so I decided to join the organization.”
Q: What do you do at 2HJ now?
“I pick up donated food from companies and deliver it to people who need it. “To best fulfill the demand when delivering the food, I try to take into account the scale and need of the recipient agencies. “I consider things like whether
they prefer non-perishables, fresh vegetables, or sweets. I take this seriously because I don’t want to waste the food we’ve gone out of our way to save.”
Photo: Pamela Ravasio
Q: What do you like about working at 2HJ? And what do you find difficult about it?
“Basically, I think the idea of changing ‘What a waste’ into ‘Thank you’ is a great way of thinking. I get a lot of chances to make people happy, which is fun. “I feel that we could use even more of the food that’s going to waste. To do that, I think we need to increase the number of people involved as well as the scale of operations.”
Q: How do you spend your time when you’re not at 2HJ?
“I surf and work part-time as a cook, so I have two part-time jobs.”
Q: Do you have any hobbies?
“Anything that involves motion: basketball, hiking, traveling.”
Q: What would you like to do at 2HJ in the future?
“I want to put my best effort into my work, and to gradually spread awareness about food banking, so that over time the movement comes to life.”
Q: You seem to really dislike wastefulness. Where do you get that concern?
“I think I got a lot of that from my parents. My father’s work was also food-related, and he would bring home tuna that was not saleable because of discolored spots, and he would cook it for us. When the dishes came out well, we’d go around and share the food with people in the neighborhood. “Later, when I was in college, I worked at a restaurant where the chef would eat the daikon trimmings and things that hadn’t been cut correctly instead of throwing them out. When the mistake was mine, he’d tell me to eat it myself. That experience also made an impression on me.”
Thanks for the insights, Haijima-san!
Interviewer: Yusuke Wada, Resource Coordinator
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Harvest News: 2007 Autumn Issue
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 the 2007 autumn issue include:
-Recipient profile: Canaan Christ Church
-New staff Haijima-san
-Photo essay: Saturday soup kitchen
-Japan’s hidden poor
-2HJ news bites
Click to view Harvest News 2007 Autumn [PDF: 1,306 KB]
Link to News story »Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Recipient profile: Canaan Christ Church
“Delicious” church offers nourishment for body, soul
Lined with cheap hostels and known for attracting day laborers, Kotobuki area is located in Yokohama’s Naka Ward. This neighborhood is populated by welfare recipients—many of them disabled people and seniors—as well as numerous homeless people. It is also home to Canaan Christ Church. The church consists of four connected one-room apartments within a building.
The church’s goal is to be a “happy, fun, delicious church,” according to Pastor Satoshi Sato. A meal of curry and rice for all attendees follows Sunday services; boxed lunches or other meals are offered after roadside services on Saturday mornings and Thursday afternoons; snacks always accompany early morning and evening services.
“Without the food we receive from Second Harvest Japan (2HJ), we couldn’t do this kind of activity. I’m filled with gratitude at the fact that they always come from far away to deliver the food to us,” says Pastor Sato’s wife, Pastor Yeonhee Seo. 2HJ delivers bread, fresh vegetables, and canned goods to the church twice a month, while one of 2HJ’s donors, Nichirei, visits the church every week with a shipment of frozen foods. Since most people in the neighborhood can’t spare money to tithe, being able to receive food for free really helps the church. “On days when we’re expecting a delivery, we all look forward to seeing what will arrive that day,” says Pastor Seo.
Pastor Seo and Korean congregation members living in Japan originally established the church to preach to people living in this area. Just as the sign at the church entrance reads, today the church welcomes “anyone seeking a purpose, anyone who is confused, anyone tired from working, anyone who has been hurt, anyone at all.” People who have lost their job, money, and home, as well as people who spent most of their lives in prison, come here.
“Most people first come here more interested in one meal than one hundred sermons. Along the way, though, I’ve seen countless brothers and sisters have their spirits healed and be redeemed,” says Pastor Sato. In some cases, people go from living on the streets to helping at the church, and eventually even taking up jobs because they “want to donate money.”
Two years ago the church took in a couple who had been living in the underground walkways of Yokohama in a makeshift cardboard house. The woman was pregnant, and the situation had been dangerous for both her and her unborn child, but in July of last year she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The baby, named Kanako after Canaan Church, is being watched over by many people and is thriving. Pastor Seo calls her the “treasure of the church.” Kanako-chan and her parents still live at the church, and her previously homeless father has become a sub-official at the city’s sanitation department.
From this fall, Canaan Church will serve as a 2HJ pantry. As such, it will function as the community “food contact point”: anyone who lacks food security or needs emergency groceries can visit the pantry to receive a parcel of food (non-perishable items like canned goods and dry noodles), which the pantry will receive from 2HJ and make available to anyone in need in the community. 2HJ is working to establish these food contact points in various locations throughout Japan.
“To help those who are troubled, both spiritually and materially, is our role as a church. We’re happy to serve as a connection between our community and 2HJ,” says Pastor Sato.
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By Etsuko Ohara
Photo: Yusuke Wada
Friday, September 28, 2007
2HJ t-shirts finally available!
Be the first in your neighborhood to wear a stylish 2HJ t-shirt!
The front of the shirt bears 2HJ’s logo, the “rice man.” The back shows our website address and tells the world what we stand for: Food for all people.
Price: 2,000 yen
Sizes: S, M, L
Color: White
Stop by and pick one up at our office, or send an e-mail to info@2hj.org to order! While you’re at it, why not add a neat 2HJ magnet to your order?
(Be sure to specify size, quantity, and shipping address.)
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