Our class was lucky enough to hear a lecture from Mr. Charles McJilton from Second Harvest Japan. Until then, I had never heard of an organization called Second Harvest, and also had no clue of what this organization does. However, throughout his lecture, I was able to discover new things I would not have been able to know. I never knew that still many people in Japan live below the poverty line. I simply thought that even though there might be differences in financial riches, almost everyone in Japan was able to have an healthy lifestyle. I was also surprised about the amount of food we throw away, and the reason why we throw it away. I always thought that the things we trash at super markets and convenience stores was because the "best by" date was going to expire. But that was not only it. Companies throw away things that are still consumable but they trash it because it was not shipped or bought by consumers for a certain amount of time.
I feel lucky that I was able to learn new things and every word Mr. McJilton said was very stimulating. I wish food banks will spread more around Japan and that more people will get the chance to know about Second Harevest.
I'm glad you learned so much from the lecture, Karen. So did I! The fact that about 20,000,000 people in Japan live below the poverty line and a big part of them are single mothers and the elderly was shocking. The image most of us had of people who are hungry and in poverty was the homeless. But, as we learned, they make up only a small percentage of the total poor and people living with "food insecurity."
返信削除That talk made me look at Japanese society in a somewhat different way. Going to university in Shibuya and living in the Tokyo Metropolitan area probably gives us a somewhat distorted view of the "reality" of Japan in the 21st century. The great thing about the lecture was that WE can do something about the problems that exist.