Sunday, October 08, 2006
Distributing Warm Meals with Warm Hearts at Ueno Park on Saturdays
Over six months have passed since I started to help 2HJ with the Ueno Park distribution on Saturdays. I first joined the distribution with an American friend who organized a volunteer event for her Japanese-American club last fall.
2HJ’s Saturday distribution has various unique features. First, it requires some physical work. Since I spend all day sitting in front of the computer at work, it’s so nice to be able to move around.
The preparation usually starts at 10:30 at the warehouse, and volunteers are split into a few teams to prepare such items as bread, vegetables, and rice. Then, we cut bread, boil vegetables, and make some soups or risotto until noon. Once we arrive at Ueno Park at around 12:30, we serve food to around 450 people until the food runs out at around 14:00. After a small meeting among the volunteers, some of us come back to the warehouse to clean the large pots and sweep the grounds. We normally finish cleaning up at 16:00. Thus, we keep moving all day long!
Another unique feature of the distribution is the direct feedback from the recipient side. I hear the words “thank you” hundreds of times when I distribute food at the park, and it is so nice to be appreciated for what I do.
But the most unique feature is the variety of people who come and help with the distribution. Over 70% of the volunteers at Saturday distribution are foreigners. Some go to international schools, some work for foreign companies, and some work as English teachers in Japan. Many of the remaining Japanese volunteers have some international background, like myself, who lived in the U.S. for six or seven years and now work at a foreign company.
We also have some native Japanese volunteers consisting mainly of retired older men, or “ojisan.” They don’t speak English at all, but they communicate with others so well with their good sense of humor of “oyaji gags” (old men’s jokes). I am so happy that they now call me “Sayo-chan” in a friendly way.
In fact, this kind of warmth among the volunteers is the driving force at 2HJ. We don’t simply distribute warm meals to people in need, but we also provide them with our warm hearts. I hope more people with warm hearts – Japanese and non-Japanese alike – will come and help with the Saturday distributions to achieve our mission of “Food for All People.”
Writer: Sayoko Tanaka
Photo: Patricia Decker
Client close-up: Refugees in Japan receive food through 2HJ-JAR cooperation
Much-needed food goes out to those who need it from Second Harvest Japan to a great network of organizations. We often hear about food going to orphanages, elderly care facilities, and the homeless, but another group of recipients is nearly invisible to many of us: people who come to Japan from other countries as refugees. Contacting 2HJ through the Japan Association for Refugees (JAR), these people and their families receive urgently needed food.
Yusuke Wada, 2HJ Resource Coordinator, recently sat down with Seiko Masuyama of JAR to get a better idea of who these people are, why they need our help, and what we can do to help them. Those who are considered to be refugees based on the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees have been persecuted in their own countries for reasons such as politics, race, and religion. According to social worker Masuyama, a majority of those in Japan who fled their own countries for these reasons are men in their 30’s and 40’s, many of whom were leaders in their own countries. “Some are Burmese who were engaged in the democratization movement,” says Masuyama, “and some others are Christian converts from Islam coming from Iran.” The flow of women refugees and families is also increasing, but the very circumstances that force people to flee their homelands often leave them with no choice but to leave their families behind.
Unable to work for legal reasons or due to personal trauma, the average refugee in Japan lives on 100,000 yen per month, has no health insurance, and has little in terms of a support network. Masuyama paints a bleak picture, explaining that, “Since they fled their own countries for political or religious reasons, some can’t even meet others from the same country.” On top of this isolation, hunger is a serious concern for these people; they most need rice, meat and vegetables, and oil. Second Harvest Japan accepts donations of all of these—provided that the items are not perishable (meats and vegetables should be canned).
2HJ uses two methods to deliver food to refugees who contact us through JAR: “homebound deliveries,” where a volunteer personally delivers the food to the recipient’s home, and sending care packages through a delivery service. We welcome volunteers for homebound deliveries. Also, since the delivery service is highly cost-effective, we plan to expand our use of it. A donation of just 2000 yen could bring comforting, needed food to the tables of four families here in Japan who may not know where their next meal is coming from.
Writer: Patricia Decker / Yusuke Wada
Photo: JAR
Friday, August 11, 2006
Learning from the American food bank experience: You have to start from somewhere
In a two-week trip to the U.S., I visited America’s Second Harvest and Northern Illinois Food Bank in Chicago, and Second Harvest Heartland in St. Paul. My first impression of them was, “Are these non-profits?” They have very excellent offices and efficient organizational structures really like the ones of major corporations. Their operations are huge; for example, Second Harvest Heartland distributed 30,000,000 pounds of foods to agencies and individuals in 2005, while Second Harvest Japan distributed 300,000 pounds of foods to needy people in the same year.
The large scale of their operations means that American food banks need to be as professional and as efficient as possible. And that makes it necessary for them to have highly sophisticated organizations. The more I knew about them, the more worried I got that we could not overcome the gap between them and us. But a lot of people there said to me, “You have to start from somewhere.” That really encouraged me.
Aside from the scale, I was impressed by their attitudes as professionals. For example, America’s Second Harvest, which functions as the networking central office of all food banks in the U.S., has many departments. A woman in the public policy department spoke very enthusiastically about their lobbying in Washington, D.C. Another woman in the agency relations department explained to me how much time and effort they put in to make agency agreement documents and to make affiliate food banks compliant with regulations—only six staff members in her department have to cover all the states and visit every food bank in the U.S. I met many people at the U.S. food banks I visited, and they were all real professionals. They are proud of what they are doing and they all have in their minds same goal: ending hunger.
I was thrilled and inspired by what I saw. I think what we, Second Harvest Japan, need to do from now is:
-Expand our scale
-Improve food safety
-Strengthen our relationships with donors
-Strengthen our relationships with agencies
-Cultivate individual financial donors
-Make receiving food as easy as possible for clients
A couple of people I met at America’s Second Harvest have decided to leave the organization and give their energy and expertise to a recently founded international networking organization called the Global Food Bank Network. They facilitate networking within foreign countries like Argentina, Ghana, Mexico, and South Africa. To join this network, a country must have a national network and elect a food banking representative of the country. I hope we can join them in the near future.
Writer/Photo: Yusuke Wada
Interview with Yusuke Wada, 2HJ’s New Resource Coordinator
As Second Harvest Japan enters its fourth year as an NPO, it has hired Yusuke Wada as its first paid staff. Yusuke has been involved with 2HJ for more than two years. I talked with him about his volunteer experiences and his goals as a staff member for the future of 2HJ.
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How did you get involved with 2HJ?
A friend introduced me and I first volunteered around January 2004. I’ve always been interested in philanthropic work, and during college I volunteered for four years in an after-school program for children whose parents were working. Unlike at a church where you do philanthropy because you are a Christian, at 2HJ you do it because it is a good thing to do, and that really resonated with me. So I kept on volunteering. I was working on some Saturdays, but on every free Saturday I participated as a driver or as a regular volunteer in the food distributions. As I volunteered, I really began to feel the sense that there are people in need. I’ve had various experiences doing jobs like translation and also studying for the bar exam, but I felt that there was something lifeless at for-profit businesses. I feel joy now through my activities at 2HJ.
What challenges will you be facing as a full-time staff member?
Right now, I’m communicating with domestic companies and other organizations, and also handling administrative work. At the office, I have a full day on weekdays coordinating volunteer activities, negotiating by telephone and e-mail, and having meetings and making plans with Charles. Since I also pick up and deliver food to agencies on some days, I also get out of the office at times.
As for the future, I plan to make adjustments to 2HJ’s infrastructure so it can function smoothly as an organization. Ideally, I want to help so that we can increase the number of paid staff, employ drivers and part-timers, and allow Charles to concentrate on his own work.
What words do you have for other volunteers and staff?
Charles encourages and takes up ideas from the staff and volunteers. At 2HJ, you can experience things that you wouldn’t in your regular work or student life. Please join in to experience this chance for yourself!
Yusuke spent two weeks in the U.S. from April 16 to study and experience America’s Second Harvest.
Writer: Keiko Tanaka
Photo: Carin Smolinski
Food banking makes economic sense: Lehman Brothers supports the community through 2HJ
Imagine a business opportunity that promises a thirteen-fold return on your investment. As one of the world’s leading investment banks, Lehman Brothers assesses market opportunities every day, but Charles McJilton’s value proposition to feed underserved communities in Tokyo struck us as uniquely compelling. I remember when I first met Charles at his Asakusa headquarters. There I learned first-hand about his passionate drive to distribute even a small percentage of the 6,000 metric tons of food discarded in Tokyo each day to feed some of the city’s nearly half a million people who lack food security. Leveraging on the fact that it costs an average of 100 yen to dispose of a kilogram of food, Charles found that he could save money for companies and at the same time turn a “profit” for society by delivering food valued at up to 13 times his operating costs. For an investment banker like me, that made terrific economic sense.
Second Harvest Japan also met an important aim of Lehman Brothers, which is to support the communities where we work. Lehman Brothers’ philanthropic contributions take many forms: financial support, employee volunteerism, and in-kind donations of knowledge, resources, and contacts. We believe that philanthropy strengthens our relationships with all of our constituents, including people in our communities, our clients and shareholders, while enriching the experience of our employees. In Asia, where the non-profit sector is often nascent and fragmented, we work with many entrepreneurial groups who may have limited resources initially, but who exhibit enormous potential to address Asia’s massive humanitarian needs.
Second Harvest Japan, which has already been successfully helping orphanages, single-parent families and the homeless for many years, proved to be the perfect partner to achieve our philanthropy goals. Our partnership with them is extensive. Many Lehman Brothers employees participate as volunteers with 2HJ, preparing and distributing food to people in need. We offer professional advice and advisory support to help 2HJ grow. Moreover, the Firm solidified its relationship with Second Harvest Japan this year with a grant from The Lehman Brothers Foundation of $91,000 over two years to help the organization reach an even larger population of people.
We look forward to deepening our relationship with Second Harvest Japan. Many of my colleagues and I have truly been inspired by Charles’ mission, and we hope that together we can share his vision with countless others.
Writer: Jim Quismorio
Photo: Lehman Brothers
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