AHAN Nippon Kan General Headquarter Homeless Meal Service Project

Sept-Dec 2009

November meal prep during a record blizzard… brrrrrr.

At the October monthly homeless dinner at the Denver Rescue Mission, we noticed a surprisingly sharp rise in the number of homeless guests to be served. For the last 19 years, we have served two meals at our monthly dinner service; one dinner at 5:00 pm. for residents of the mission, and an 8:00 pm. meal service for outside guests. The total meals served at these two services averaged between 250 to 300 meals.

In October, the mission suddenly changed the service format to accommodate four meal services instead of two, totaling well over 400 meals served per evening. This increased our volunteer time for the meal services alone to five hours at the mission. Adding in food prep and cooking time, the amount and costs for the foods to be served, and the time spent by the volunteers meant a big change in our monthly service routine.

Homma Kancho contributes the most to these meal services, beginning the homeless meal service prep at 7:00 am. After a full day of food prep, cooking and four meal services, Homma Kancho is one of the last to leave the mission at about 9:30 pm. For the past 19 years, most of the funds used to support this meal service project have come from Homma Kancho’s personal donations. It is unfortunate that occasionally over the years we have heard rumors that Nippon Kan only participate in local service projects as an excuse to solicit money. Nothing could be further from the truth; especially for this homeless service project, Nippon Kan has never solicited outside funds.

It is never Nippon Kan’s philosophy to create volunteer projects and seek outside support to make them happen. We do the best we can to accomplish what we can with our own resources. Nippon Kan’s restaurant and other business projects help to generate most of the funds needed for our service projects both locally and internationally. Self-support and independence within a number of years is an ultimate goal of all of our projects around the world.

This year as in all these years past, we are thankful to all Nippon Kan volunteers and guest volunteers for their service. Especially this year, Consul Mitsui of the Japanese Consulate in Denver and his wife, first came to the Denver Rescue Mission as a Nippon Kan guest volunteer and have become regulars at many homeless dinners this year.

Link here to thoughts and reflections of 19 years of service at the Denver Rescue Mission in “From the Homeless Shelter”, written by Homma Kancho.

Written by
David Geras
Nippon Kan Treasurer