Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Watch Online: OurPlanet TV Interviews 2HJ Resource Coordinator Yusuke Wada
OurPlanet TV’s Rika Kobayashi interviewed Yusuke Wada today about hunger and food banking in Japan. The basic function of a food bank – to take in food from donors and redistribute it to those in need – is still not widely known in this country.
Some facts mentioned in the 23-minute interview may surprise viewers: 650 thousand people lack food security in Japan and 19.5 million are living below the poverty line. This need is coupled with a system that makes donating food difficult even for companies that want to give; they are taxed when they donate an amount of food that exceeds the government’s current cutoff line.
Watch the interview online (in Japanese only)! It will be the featured item on OurPlanet TV’s web site for two weeks.
Link to News story »Friday, October 20, 2006
Harvest for Hunger 2006 Draws 170 Attendees
The third annual Harvest for Hunger was held on Sunday, October 15 at Fujimamas in Omotesando. With a record 170 people in attendance, the event was a genuine success, reaching out to many concerned residents in Tokyo and the surrounding areas. With the goal of raising awareness about Second Harvest Japan’s mission, Harvest for Hunger featured an address by executive director Charles McJilton, and during dinner guests were invited to learn more about food banking and volunteer opportunities at information tables set up in the restaurant.
At the three tables upstairs, attendees learned about a variety of food banking issues. Seisei Shibata spoke with attendees about the efforts she and her husband, Kousaku, have made to spread the idea and practice of food banking in Japan; the couple has been with 2HJ from the beginning. Yusuke Wada, Resource Coordinator, recounted his experiences at U.S. food banks and talked about how he is putting the lessons he learned into practice here in Japan. Michelle Ryan shared her stories about some of the 80 families and individuals to whom she provides weekly emergency groceries as the coordinator of 2HJ’s Harvest Pantry. The pantry provides a service that otherwise does not exist in Japan and is 2HJ’s fastest growing sector. At the information table downstairs, attendees could sign up to volunteer and to receive information about volunteering; Co-Volunteer Coordinator Patricia Decker was there to chat about volunteering and answer any questions.
Those in attendance left with a stronger sense of the underserved communities in Tokyo and learned more about Second Harvest’s objective to collect otherwise-wasted food and redistribute it to those who need it most. Many thanks to everyone who attended Harvest for Hunger, and special thanks to Fujimamas for supporting the evening. Thank you also to the Planning Committee for selling tickets and to the volunteers who helped to make the night run smoothly: Leland and Carolyn Gaskins, Teri Scott, Masahiko Shibata, Leah Mitchell, Anna Maria Dew, and Ashley Rudisill. Together we can make hunger history!
Writer: Ashley Rudisill
Photos: Daniel Perez
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Voices from Saturday Volunteers
Link to News story »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
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