Thursday, April 29, 2010
Office Manager Masahiro Otake’s U.S. Food Bank Travelogue Vol. 1
Hello all! My name is Masahiro Otake, the office manager at 2HJ. I would like to share with you my experiences from my internship at Global Foodbanking Network (GFN) in San Antonio, Texas. The trip was five days from March 1st to the 5th of 2010, and I learned many things that I think you might find interesting as well.
Our training was held in San Antonio, at the headquarters of HEB, a supermarket chain with more than 300 stores in Mexico and Texas who is a sponsor of the GFN training program. Here is a shot of a mobile kitchen I saw at the site.
Visiting the Mobile Kitchen
From the outside of the mobile kitchen
Inside the truck is a fully stocked kitchen.
The mobile kitchen can be driven to disaster areas and provide hot meals for people in afflicted areas. This vehicle is capable of producing over 2,000 meals per hour.
Next, we visited the San Antonio Food Bank.
The San Antonio Food Bank (SAFB) was chosen as “Food Bank of the Year” in 2007, out of the 200+ food banks in the United States. I was truly impressed with efficient systems it has and the sheer scale of the place.
In 2009, roughly 36 million pounds (approximately 16,300 metric tons) of food were donated to this food bank, and then the food bank redistributed them to about 450 soup kitchens and other facilities in the area.
Local facilities have reported that they have been able to save on 56.8 million dollars (approximately 5 billion yen) in food costs just with the donations they received from SAFB.
It is thought that about 49 million people are lacking food security in the United States, of which 17 million are children, and 5 million are seniors.
Texas, where this GFN training was held, has the second highest rate of people lacking food security among the 50 states.
Out of the many programs at SAFB, the Community Kitchen and the BackPack Program caught my interest the most.
The Community Kitchen gives economically disadvantaged people, training of food service job skill needed to achieve self-sufficiency. It’s a bit like a vocational school program in Japan. This program addresses one of the reasons that people cannot break free from poverty—deficiency in job skills.
The Community Kitchen takes participants through a 16-week culinary arts program. Upon completion, the graduates continue on to self-sufficiency, by seeking a job to apply the skills they learned. The representative I spoke with told me with great pride that an astonishing 90% of participants go on to find jobs after going through this program.
Busily working at the Community Kitchen
Food prepared here are quickly and efficiently distributed to the poor
The other program that really caught my attention was the BackPack Program, where SAFB works together with local schools to provide food for children at risk of going hungry over holidays and weekends. Nutritious food is given to children discreetly in a non-descript bag (put in their backpack), on their way home from school.
The number of children who lack food security in the U.S. is estimated to 17 million. In order to support these children, not only SAFB, but also many other food banks in the U.S. implement this unique and heartwarming program.
Food packs like this one are distributed to children discreetly on their way home.
In the second half, I will introduce the various activities that the GFN does to help fight hunger.
If you like this story, you might also enjoy:
Food for Thought—A Look at Food Banks in the U.S. Part 1: From Farm to Family
2HJ’s new video - Thank you very much for your support!
Link to News story »
RSS
Keep up to date with the latest news.