Today, I participated in the Fenway Community Center’s volunteer.
It is a local organization, and they work on regional zero hunger. At first, we offloaded many foods from a truck and put them in bags to make sets. The food in the bags came into two types, and there are that can eat promptly like bread and take time for cooking before eating. People don’t have to heat and cut when they want to eat them. Many receivers in that area live alone and have older ages, so they might feel difficulties cooking meals every time, even if they hope to have hot meals sometimes. I think dividing provided food into two types leads them to increase the frequency and nutritious meals.
On the other hand, I was concerned that they were wasting food. They throw away bread simply because it’s not sealed. The number of pieces of food wasted amounted to two large garbage cans. Indeed, some people might think it unequal if packed food and non-sealed food are distributed equally. But I don’t believe that people who need more food would refuse high-quality and non-expired food for the opening packages. There are a lot of food seekers in the community, so we should consider ways to improve the situation. Those bread didn’t look dry even if the lid was open. In Japan, we use a tool that prevents almost all bread from drying out. I want to recommend bread makers or organizations that distribute bread use such a tool. It also helps the ingredients stay fresh even after the food receivers get them.
After packing these items, we delivered them to neighborhoods. Almost all users pick them up at the community center, but they work on delivery for those with mobility difficulties. The organization approaches it for older people, so I think that’s a valuable idea because everyone benefits equally. Their research skills were terrific as identifying people in the neighborhood who are hard to move around is difficult.
Through this volunteer, I could become familiar with the hunger issue. In addition, I could understand efforts in response to the problems. They prepare sufficient quantities of fresh, unbiased, and nutritional food and help local people get equal rewards. Besides, they change the providing stuff according to their lifestyles. This initiative to provide food to underserved people is the “push” strategy. In other words, this system can’t affect sustainable impacts to the region over a long time. However, I believe that it has a significant meaning in supporting people’s foundation.
Nao Miyama