Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Food banker for a day
It’s 10:00 on a hectic Thursday at Second Harvest Japan, and I am here to see what happens on a typical day at the nation’s first food bank. Executive Director Charles E. McJilton facilitates a delivery of frozen food via e-mail. Harvest Pantry Coordinator Michelle Ryan collates receipts. Resource Coordinator Yusuke Wada taps away on his laptop.
“Every day is different,” Michelle tells me. Tasks include presentations to donors, interviews to the media, and delivering emergency groceries (staples like rice and miso) to “help get people on their feet.”
Yusuke picks up a ringing phone. Someone wants to donate food. Michelle speaks to the caller.
In a flash, David Adams, the part-time driver, is in, out and off to Costco to pick up donated bread and produce. Everyone is upbeat.
Laying out the day’s plan
Charles’s first errand is at the bank, to sort out credit cards, and pay taxes, bills, and salaries. In the afternoon, he’ll make two deliveries to orphanages in Chiba. He’s also scheduled for a photo shoot with a photographer from AERA magazine.
Michelle is making progress with her paperwork. In the afternoon, volunteers from Hands-On Tokyo, a community-based NPO, are coming to help prepare packages: boxes of canned food, juices, and assorted dried goods.
Yusuke will spearhead deliveries in Tokyo.
The staff fills me in as they work. Tokyo TV’s March feature on 2HJ has created a buzz that has stretched the organization to respond to the many new opportunities. “Our first priority is building a relationship,” Charles imparts, “not just getting donations.”
A glamorous, late morning
The photographer from AERA is early. Camera ready, he clicks away.
Etsuko, a freelance writer, is in the neighborhood. She’s a volunteer who’s writing a book on food banking and 2HJ. She checks out the proofs for a new 2HJ brochure.
David is back from Costco. We pile outside to witness Charles posing with the freshly arrived sweets. The photographer coaxes Yusuke into the frame to capture their sincere smiles.
As Charles leaves, Yusuke and David stock the van for afternoon delivery. Inside, Etsuko and Michelle confer. Lunchtime!
Afternoon delivery with Yusuke and David
Yusuke checks the GPS. David rides shotgun. I’m in the back with the goodies. David is learning the route from Akihabara to a women’s shelter 2HJ visits twice a month to deliver food.
In addition to coordinating deliveries, Yusuke works on building 2HJ’s relationship with existing and potential Japanese donors. He says he learned “good goals for [2HJ’s] future” from food banking seminars in the US and media training in Japan (an in-kind donation from Gavin Anderson & Co., a public relations consulting firm).
We arrive and cheerful ladies come out to help unload bread, packs of soup, meat/pasta sauce, and juice. They squeal with delight over the mouth-watering cupcakes and cookies.
The van is half empty in the afternoon traffic back to HQ.
Back at HQ
Charles is still out delivering food to the orphanages. The care packages are good to go. David is organizing the warehouse and listening to music. He admits that working with 2HJ “is a nice pace after seven years of corporate Japan.”
It’s getting late so I thank the staff and promise to help serve food at Ueno Park. I hear the potato salad is famous: it hits the spot.
Photos and story by Damion Mannings
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