Second Harvest Japan

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Saturday, instead of sleeping in - because how would that make Saturday any different from any other day in my current unemployed schedule - I got up bright and early and headed to Akihabara to help prepare and assemble a whole lot of food - I helped with cookie packing (don't think I'll be able to look at a chocolate chip cookie again for a long time... this is a good thing) - for distribution to the homeless of Ueno park. After we finished with the preparation, I went with the other volunteers to Ueno, where we spent a couple of hours handing out hot and cold food to over 500 people. We even had enough to give some people seconds, so in total, we handed out over 700 meals plus bags of cookies, edamame, beef jerky, fresh fruit and veggies, bread, and pastries for people to eat throughout the week until Second Harvest shows up again, same time, same place, to do it all over next Saturday.

Today had no one, huge life-changing moment for me, but rather, more significantly, small reminders of how we're all just neighbors in this world, so to speak, and hopefully we lend a helping hand when we can. It's easy to wonder how the people I saw today got into the situation they're in and, somehow, it always occurs to me when I meet people who are in living situations so different from my own, how it was probably one small thing, one choice at a crossroads, that brought them to a line at a soup kitchen, or a park bench as a bed, or a sketchy job on street corner. Or maybe it wasn't even their choice at that crossroads, but a choice made by someone else, out of their control, that brought this man or that woman to stand in that giant line, waiting for a bowl of rice, potato salad, sausage, pickled vegetables, and a cup of clam chowder. Whatever the case may be, what's more neighborly than making sure that a couple of your neighbors get a hot meal once a week.

If you're interested in volunteering with Second Harvest or if your company could possibly donate money, supplies, or time to the effort (a group of employees from NuSkin Japan was helping to serve up grub today), please check out the website and/or get in contact with Patricia (volunteer@2hj.org). Every hand helps.