AHAN Homeless Meal Service is one of the activities of “AHAN”, the humanitarian support operations division of Aikido Nippon-Kan, a federal 501 c 3 non-profit organization. AHAN Homeless Meal Service is carried out on the third Sunday of every month, and this year marks the 26th year since its beginning. The records show 195 people were served with free meals in October, 1991 at a Denver Rescue Mission location. Counting from the very beginning, AHAN Homeless Meal Service has served more than 80,000 free meals!
Originally, Homma Kancho negotiated personally with the Denver Rescue Mission every month for a date to serve free meals and conducted the monthly homeless meal service with a few students up until 1999, when a local newspaper ran an article about the benevolent monthly activity. This article became the catalyst for the less well known community service to develop into what it is today. AHAN Homeless Meal Service had offered free meals at the same Denver Rescue Mission location for 22 years. In August of 2013 the serving location was changed to St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Denver to offer free lunch, since the new place offered a way to serve and interact with the people in need more directly.
Approximately 150 ~ 300 people who are in need of help line up every day in an alley behind the large church. There is no obligation by the church for the people in need of support to pray against their will. The locale has allowed us to exchange banter with some of the people when we hand them meals, e.g. “Yo, What’s up?”, “I thought you told us last time you would no longer have to come here?”
Of course, there are comments we should not say to the people who come to enjoy these meals; for example, “See you next month.” When there were some leftovers, someone senselessly, albeit innocently, said, “Who wants to take these home with you…?” The scene seemed to freeze up as the comment may have hurt the feeling of some homeless people. The violation of the tacit agreement invited sheepish laughs…
Homma Kancho, the founder of this initiative who has donated his time and money to purchase all the ingredients (except for desserts, etc. donated to the church by third parties) and the materials to keep the monthly event running, has kept a diary, and it is meticulous. Captured painstakingly in his diary include, but are not limited to: a list of ingredients, how to chop up carrots, potatoes to be cooked for a large serving amount, technical notes to prioritize the timing of different procedures, what personal traits volunteer servers should possess, notes about observed ethnicities, approximate ages and their demeanors and reactions of the people served and what these people liked and didn’t like, and points of reflections and ideas for improvements for the next month. Every detail is well captured in the diary.
A countless number of volunteers help support AHAN Homeless Meal Service to prepare and serve the meals, and Homma Kancho not only buys all the ingredients out of his pocket, but performs as head chef to cook the meals in the kitchen of DOMO Restaurant of which he is the founder/owner-chef. This is how AHAN Nippon-Kan has been able to keep the costs low, approximately $400 per monthly event, so that it can continue serving the people in need for such a long time. Even excluding the first 4 years of trial and error, $400 per month for 22 years totals to approximately $100,000 that Homma Kancho has donated to the cause. If he had saved the money the lump sum may be worth a condominium, but Homma Kancho still leads a simple lifestyle by living in a little corner office at Nippon-Kan with a sleeper sofa as his bed.
Homma Kancho’s dedication to remain hands-on with Nippon-Kan, to teach and to interact directly with many uchideshi (live-in students) as well as to manage the busy restaurant has supported AHAN Nippon-Kan day-in and day-out, and many wonderful Nippon-Kan students have echoed his dedication and commitment to continue supporting and maintaining what AHAN Nippon-Kan stands for.
There is almost always a controversial aspect about any charitable activity for the homeless, the vulnerable and/or the needy. There are usually more reprimands than praises, and the top three such rebukes are as follows: “These people don’t get a job because they get free meals.”, “The true motive of this service is self-advertisement and self-promotion rather than a sense of benevolence.”, or “It’s an act of self-induced euphoria by a hypocrite”. Nonetheless, Homma Kancho firmly and clearly insists that he has turned all those slandering and misdirected comments into positive energies to believe in himself to continue with the cause for the past 26 years.
When Homma Kancho reflects on the past 26 years of serving free meals, his words are relaxed and natural, evidently backed by decades of selfless service to the community: “After 26 years, it has become part of me and my life that I prepare and offer curry and rice and noodle soup for free every month. I no longer particularly pay attention that it is for the homeless; I’m seeing it as another event open to the public. Regardless of what supporters or nay-sayers express, I just want people to enjoy the meals. I don’t label it as a charitable cause.” Under his leadership, I sense that many long-time volunteers, at their core, probably share the common perspective as his.
Recently, the foundation of credibility upon which Nippon-Kan has been built since its inception has been shaken by deliberate slandering emails that not only disparaged Nippon-Kan and its humanitarian support operations division AHAN, but caused certain misunderstandings among many Nippon-Kan supporters.
Since 1976, over 25,000 people have somehow associated themselves with Nippon-Kan, and it’s not difficult to imagine a certain number of these people may have seen humanitarian support activities led by Homma Kancho through a different, less positive, less favorable lens. Nonetheless, it’s worth pointing out that those who have been offered one of over 80,000 free meals and those who have been helped by AHAN’s worldwide humanitarian support initiatives have only expressed their appreciation to the generosity of AHAN Nippon-Kan and have never expressed any form of libel or groundless criticism against this organization.
On May 20, the day before another AHAN Homeless Meal Service, Nippon-Kan student volunteers were busy chopping ingredients and making various preparations. The next day at 5:00AM, Homma Kancho himself started cooking, and at 11:00 AM hearty meals were served by Homma Kancho and the volunteers. Such cohesive teamwork enabled the team supporting AHAN Nippon-Kan to serve over 360 meals that day, yet again. It usually takes about 30 volunteers each month to pull this off. For those who do not understand the planing and dedication that go into these activities but prefer to nitpick and forge allegations, it is likely impossible to think of people who must line up from the night before just to have one meal.
Bryon Hays
AHAN Nippon-Kan Vice President
Nippon-Kan Chief Instructor