Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Order your 2008 2HJ New Year’s cards now!
Share the message of “Food for All People” in your New Year’s greetings this year! These original postcards, created by volunteers Konrad Solarewicz and Pamela Ravasio, bear colorful photos of food 2HJ has distributed to those in need, along with the messages of “Happy New Year” and “Food for All People.”
Proceeds will help 2HJ provide food to those in need in Japan. Each set, priced at 600 yen (plus 100 yen shipping), contains 6 cards (2 of each design). Click images below to enlarge.
To order, send an e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Please specify (1) your name, (2) shipping address, and (3) how many sets you would like to order.
Please order by December 17.
Link to News story »Thursday, November 29, 2007
Seeking Friday prep crew volunteers
To make the Saturday Soup Kitchen possible, we’re looking for 3-5 volunteers to come on Fridays to prepare for Saturday’s activities. Help out by chopping vegetables and doing some basic cooking!
Date: 11/31 (Friday)
Activity: Friday preparation session (3-5 volunteers)
Time: 9:00-15:00
Location: 2HJ Warehouse/Office (Akihabara/Asakusabashi Stations)
Regular participation is ideal (for example, 2 Fridays per month), but one-off volunteers are also welcome. You may also sign up to come late or leave early—we’re flexible!
Working language is Japanese. Volunteers who do not speak Japanese should be prepared to communicate creatively!
Monday, November 26, 2007
2HJ’s TV commercial wins copper award
On November 16, 2007, at the Japan Advertisers Association’s 47th “Advertisement Beneficial to Consumers” Contest, 2HJ’s TV commerical received the copper award for the public sector. The commercial was produced with the help of Beacon Communications and many other contributors. 2HJ would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who made this commercial possible.
Executive Director Charles McJilton accepted the award
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 pantry@2hj.org / 03-3838-3827.
Link to News story »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
Link to News story »RSS
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