Interview
Charles E. McJilton is the CEO and founder of Second Harvest Japan (2HJ). 2HJ collects food that would otherwise go to waste from food manufacturers, farmers, and individuals, and distributes it to people in need such as children in orphanages, low-income households, and the homeless.
In this special interview for the Russian International Affairs Council, Charles shares his experiences in starting the first food bank in Japan, his vision of global and regional cooperation and his advice for a country where the food bank concept has not yet taken hold.
Interview
Charles E. McJilton is the CEO and founder of Second Harvest Japan (2HJ).
2HJ collects food that would otherwise go to waste from food manufacturers, farmers, and individuals, and distributes it to people in need such as children in orphanages, low-income households, and the homeless.
In this special interview for the Russian International Affairs Council, Charles shares his experiences in starting the first food bank in Japan, his vision of global and regional cooperation and his advice for a country where the food bank concept has not yet taken hold.
Interviewee: Charles E. McJilton
Interviewer: Brian Yeung
As a food banker, how do you see the food security problem in Japan?
Within Japan itself, about 15 percent of the population lives below the relative poverty line, meaning that they make less than half the average income. There are almost 20 million people within Japan in that category.
The basic definition of food security is access to safe and nutritious food in a socially acceptable manner. So perhaps I live on the street but I can take food out of the garbage everyday. I have access to food, and maybe it’s nutritious, but it is not safe or socially acceptable. Using that definition, which differs from hunger, we can put the number at 780,000 for Japan. But we use a very strict definition.
There are four different categories: single mother, elderly, homeless and migrant worker. Just to give you an example: there are 3.2 million single mothers in Japan. According to the standard definition the figure is 15 percent, but the actual poverty rate among single mothers is 57 percent. Let me give you one more example: there are 20 million elderly people in Japan. The poverty rate among the elderly is 22 percent. By 2015, 32 million people will be classed as elderly.
You may say this means the situation is getting worse. I would refute that. In reality, what is happening is that we are getting closer to being able to tell people the real numbers. As I mentioned, nearly 3 million people in Japan lack access to safe and nutritious food. You may say that cannot be the case. But the number I just gave you, for the elderly, that category alone could give us this figure.
Annually, Japan destroys between 5 and 8 million tons of food. To put that into context, worldwide food aid in 2008 amounted to just 6.5 million tons. So the total volume distributed throughout the world in term of aid was either almost as much, or just less than what was destroyed in this country. When I say: “what is destroyed in Japan,” I am not referring to things like what you see when you go to a convenience store, and see the unsold boxes of rice balls be destroyed. That figure is not included.
Every year the government reports economic data to the OECD, including the poverty rate. Before 2009, they only gave these statements in English. That was the first year since the Second World War that they compiled these reports in Japanese. When people started hearing this data in Japanese, many thought, in what was a very common misunderstanding, that this must be a recent problem.
What inspired the establishment of Japan’s first food bank?
Everyone here in Japan knows about the concept of “もったいない” (what is waste), but the first food bank was the consequence of various different opportunities and the development of the non-profit sector.
In 2000, there wasn’t just me. There were several different people and representatives of hot meal programs, unions and groups who came together and said: “if we can share our food resources, maybe we can help each other be more effective in what we do.” That is what we did for 2 years.
We looked at food banks in United States and found that a very interesting model. The first food bank in the United States was St Mary's Food Bank, established in 1967. There are differing approaches to food banks with different services. Feeding Hong Kong represents what we call the “wholesale model” – just like a wholesaler, it takes from different company suppliers and distributes to different retailers. The second is what we call the “retail model”- I provide you with food and you get services at my organization and at various other places. The third is called the “fast-food model” – I give it to you and you consume it at the location or somewhere else, like with a soup kitchen. Even today, St Mary’s Food Bank, the very first one, operates all three different models.
We decided that we should make food available to anybody in need. That is in part where our slogan “food for everyone” came from. We chose to create a food bank that served anybody in need.
We are operating in a very unique context in Japan. We have one foot in the for-profit sector, meaning we deal with food companies. They are part of our needs. We also deal with the non-profit sector, welfare and charitable organizations that have a need and we also cater to that need. The philosophy here is to approach it as both business and as welfare. When we talk to these people, we do not ask for donations. Instead, we emphasize the need to understand their situation; we have a lot of agreements with the different parties. We take the time to establish what their need is, and see whether or not they are able to make that donation to us. Probably unlike other food banks, which place strong emphasis on going around looking for donations, we instead emphasize building the relationship with food companies first.
Now we have 19 employees and 80 to 90 volunteers. In 2010, we donated 813 tons or food, last year this figure was 1,689 tons and this year it will be over 2,500 tons. We hired our first employee in 2006, and he is now working in San Francisco. We never anticipated we would get this far. So it wasn’t that we planned to get where we are today; we just got here.
What was the biggest challenge in starting Japan’s first food bank?
Before 1988 there was no law to that made it possible for citizen groups to become incorporated as a non-profit. Obviously there were non-profits, but they were part of the public sector and incorporated by government. If you operated as a non-profit, you would have to do so as an unincorporated citizen group. You had to enter into an agreement in someone’s name and employing people was also very problematic. So, for-profit companies had little experience of working with non-profits. It was not an easy or straightforward thing to do. In 2007, we got some national TV exposure, before then we only had about 15 companies that donated to us. Now we have 675. A lot of companies saw us on TV and said: “I think we can do that too.” So in the first five years, a lot of people were standing around the pool, wondering whether they can jump in safely. Developing trust and relationships with companies was a real challenge.
Second Harvest Japan is now part of the Global FoodBanking Network. How valuable do you feel this kind of cooperation among food banks from different countries is?
The Global FoodBanking Network approached us when they started in 2006, and asked us if we would like to become a member. We joined in 2007. Regional cooperation is what we are creating right now - Second Harvest Asia, which helps promote food banking in Asia. We saw a need here that the Global FoodBanking Network was not able to fulfill.
We created Second Harvest Asia in the United States in 2010, in order to bring food banks from Asia to the United States and see how things are done there. Not just to get a picture of it, but to get experience with them. We wanted to provide a fusion of experience and understanding. The second thing we did this year, was that we worked with an institute on a two-week assessment of our food bank system and an in-depth report of what areas should be changed or improved on to make the operation more effective, and also to clarify our approach.
Next week, Monday and Tuesday, we will hold an event in Hong Kong. The goal of that is to share best practice. Throughout Asia, each food bank has a different approach and different level of development. However, we share a common goal of collecting the resources available within the community and giving them to people in need.
What advice would you give a country where the concept of food banks is still underdeveloped?
The first thing that I think you have to look at is the local culture, and understand what already exists in term of services. It is always helpful do to this, and in the Philippines we did this through a six-month feasibility study. We are building contacts and getting people interested. As you can imagine, there is a great need in the Philippines. If you want to give out food, you can do that. But if you want to build a system that is sustainable, you need to have a lot of stakeholders in place. The first step I suggest is to understand what already exists, what need you are to fulfill and what challenges you face.
For example, in the Philippines, one of the challenges is corruption. Making sure that the donation goes to the intended recipient instead and not to somebody else along the way is a challenge. Corruption may not be an issue Hong Kong or Singapore but it is in the Philippines. But what is interesting is their approach. They gave us the example of textbooks. The Philippines faced a problem when the Department of Education was buying textbooks and sending them out to different schools. The problem was that between point A and point B textbooks were lost. The school’s position at that time was that at least they did get some textbooks. Which was more than they got before: i.e. at least they got some. They were not going to complain. They did not know what was happening. So they connected with other NGOs, government departments and agencies to set up what they call “textbook count”. Before the textbooks leave, the Department of Education counts them. And when the textbooks arrive, volunteers count them again and confirm the numbers tally.
So that was one way they dealt with their challenge there. In Russia, they probably face different challenges and I think that will take some creative thinking. That’s my suggestion.
