AHAN Nippon Kan Homeless Food Service

Socks and underwear; gifts from Homma Kancho.

The December homeless meal service concludes Nippon Kan’s meal service for 2008. This year we passed a milestone by serving our 50,000th meal to the homeless on May 18, 2008. Link here to the article about the 50,000 meal milestone last May.

Nippon Kan could not have accomplished this goal without the help of our dedicated student volunteers. On the third Sunday of the month, for the past 18 years, students have gathered after Sunday morning practice to peel and chop vegetables for the monthly meal service. There are usually about 20 students that stay after practice to accomplish this task which if you added the number of students over the years it would be in the thousands. After the morning prep is finished, Domo Japanese Country Foods Restaurant chefs spend their only day of the week they have to rest, cooking for about 4 hours the dishes to be served for the evening meal. At 3:00 pm, Homma Kancho, Domo chefs and uchideshi students go to the mission for the last bit of meal preparation. The first dinner is served at 5:00 pm. to on average 50 people in the Denver Rescue Mission resident program. This meal has a larger variety of dishes served. At 7:00 p.m., about 15 Nippon Kan student volunteers arrive to prepare the dining hall for the outside homeless guest dinner at 8:00 p.m. At this dinner, an average of 250 to 300 meals are served. Our volunteer staff has spent many years serving this dinner and has worked out a routine that “runs like a well oiled machine.” The dinner service usually lasts until about 9:00 p.m. when all of the volunteers and Domo staff members return home after a long but productive day. I think that with this kind of experience, Nippon Kan could put together a meal for 400 to 500 people in an emergency in about 6 hours time.

Decembers volunteers for meal prep.

For 18 years, Homma Kancho has personally funded this monthly meal service at the Denver Rescue Mission. Nippon Kan never solicits outside funds or even donations from students for this local project. Homma Kancho spoke about this meal service: “The people that we serve at the Denver Rescue Mission all have their own reasons and personal story for being there. I have learned a great deal from meeting and working with the people at the mission; it has been a very good experience. This has been my school for learning about the realities of life. My donations to this project have actually my tuition to this school of life. Having a restaurant and access to wholesale foods has made my tuition more affordable, and anyway I don’t have expensive hobbies or a lot of personal expenses so I enjoy giving back in this way. What brings me the most happiness is that we have been able to continue for so many years.”

Many thanks to all of the volunteers who have donated their time and energy for all of these years to this special project.

Written by
Nippon Kan AHAN International Program Director
Emily Busch