I attended to Jamaica Plain small business trip on February 23rd.
Ms. Ginger introduced us to her organization and small businesses in Jamaica Plain. She is the only employee of her organization. She told us that this organization is to support the community, and it is necessary for small businesses because it can make them get the best help. She started the organization because her husband started his business, a small bakery, 18 years ago. She said that COVID19 makes getting milk, chocolate, etc difficult, and the minimum wage in the area is higher than any other part of the state, but he tries not to raise the price of his products because it’s unfair. Additionally, he ensures that the ingredients for the product are from the local. In this area, many businesses get the ingredients or products from the local or family’s farm. City feed & Supply is a grocery store that sells honey from bees in Jamaica Plain. It also sells coffee, chocolate, and so on from fair trade. Cacao, a chocolatier, gets the cacao from the family’s farm in the Caribbean.
That there is a fridge that neighbors can donate food that they don’t need was the most interesting for me, and it was related to my research. I learned that the biggest cause of hunger was food waste, and there are enough foods on the earth to feed people who suffer from hunger. In the first place, not purchasing food other than the amount of food that we really need, but it is a little bit difficult because buying spare can make people relieved. This fridge is easy to donate food, and it can help hunger in neighbors. I believe that giving people assistance who we can help is the first step to solve world problems, and it is so important.
Whether all neighbors know the existence of the fridge that they can donate the food or not, and how can make people know about it are the questions that I have after this research mission because there are only a few ingredients in it when I saw the inside of it.
I want anyone who looks for the strategies to solve hunger to know this research mission, especially about the fridge.
Yuika Sugawara