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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
May 28, 2008
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| April 25, 2008 |
Charles McJilton Turns “Waste” into “Thanks” in Japan through Food Banking |
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| Charles, fluent in Japanese after living in Japan for over seventeen years, gave onboard lectures in both Japanese and English |
In 2002, the total amount of food aid donated throughout the world was approximately eight million tons. Meanwhile, in the same year the Japanese government reported over 21 million tons of food waste nationally. Charles McJilton, the founder of food banking in Japan and the head of Second Harvest Japan (2HJ), the first incorporated nonprofit food bank in Japan, explains simply how many companies dispose of food that people can still use. Through Second Harvest Japan, he works to redistribute some of this wasted food, providing safe and healthy food for those in need by allowing companies to donate food still safe for human consumption that they would otherwise have to pay to throw away. |
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Charles explains that in Tokyo, over 6000 metric tons of food are thrown away every day at the cost of approximately 100 yen, or one US dollar, per square kilogram |
As a Sophia University research student in 1991, Charles was exposed to poverty while living in a religious community in the Sanya district, a poor section of Tokyo. The Japanese economic bubble was bursting, and age and unemployment began forcing day laborers out on to the streets in greater numbers. The extent of poverty in an international economic hub like Tokyo shocked Charles, and wanting to do something but dissatisfied with traditional forms of charity, Charles established a self-help center in 1995 called “Let’s Build.” The center provided food, shower facilities and emergency housing, acted as a place to store clothing and blankets, and gave unemployed job hunters a phone number and address to use on job applications. The poverty in the Sanya district had a strong effect on Charles, who says, “if Sanya was going to be a hospice where men came to die on the streets, I at least wanted to offer them the ability to die in dignity, and if they chose to change their lives, the tools to help themselves.” |
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Many participants were surprised to learn that Japan’s poverty rate was 15.3 percent, meaning that nearly 20 million people live below the poverty line |
In 1996, Charles made a decision that would change his life, choosing to live in a cardboard house along the Sumida River for three months in an attempt to better understand poverty and homelessness. During this time, Charles realized that “when you live alongside someone who does not have enough, hunger is no longer a theory but a reality to be lived out.” The scheduled three months stretched into fifteen months along the river, and redefined Charles’ notion of poverty. He now believes that there are essentially three forms of poverty: economic, social and spiritual. Economic poverty affects everything from where people work to their access to education. Meanwhile social poverty, the sense of being alienated from society, leads to the high frequency of alcohol abuse and suicide in Japan. Charles believes that all humans have an innate need to define who they are and what their purpose in life is, but that the lack of this definition leads to feelings of apathy, depression, and what he calls spiritual poverty. |
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“Much of the guilt in the world comes from an exaggerated sense of responsibility, but the important thing is not to feel responsible for social problems, but rather to respond to them.” |
In 2002, Charles established Second Harvest Japan as a response to the poverty he witnessed while living on the Sumida River bank. Second Harvest currently has four main areas of operations: hot meal service, harvest pantry, food banking, and advocacy and development. While each deals with the collection and redistribution of excess food in Japan, the actual operations take different forms, from the Saturday hot meal service in Tokyo’s Ueno Park to an emergency home delivery programme. In 2007, Second Harvest Japan was able to distribute over 300 tons of food to people in need. Charles speaks optimistically about the progress and future prospects for food banking in Japan, saying that Japanese people who learn about food banking are often eager to participate for its economic, ecological and philanthropic value. Personally, Charles finds the motivation to continue his work in his daughter, saying, “I am just one member of society and this is my response. I am a bit selfish in that I want a good society to live in and to pass on to my daughter. Japan has given me a lot over the years. I am very blessed for that and this is my small way of repaying that debt.”
To learn more about Second Harvest Japan, please visit: www.2hj.org |
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