On 21st of May Second Harvest Japan (2HJ) made the second round of relief supplies distribution at "Michi no Eki Minami-Soma", a local community center, in collaboration with "Save Minami-Soma Project", a local volunteer group.
This time we took to Minami-Soma vegetables, sausages, eggs, milk, bottled water, snacks as well as masks, towels, and adult nappies, which weighed some 10 tons all together in our 3 trucks.
About 50 people were already in the queue, when our trucks arrived there at 4:30 in the morning. At 5:00 We started giving out numbered tickets. The first 200 numbered tickets were handed out to people at the age of 70 or older and those with disability. Others got a ticket from No. 201 on.
The last numbered ticket was No. 800. We had to warn those in the queue after No. 800 that each of them would receive a smaller amount of relief supplies. We eventually distributed relief supplies to 1,126 people from 7:00 to 9:30. Many recipients said, "Thank you very much for coming to Minami Soma all the way from Tokyo!" or "When is the next time?" We were glad to see them being happy to receive supplies but at the same time, we felt their strong expectations for us.
Besides 2HJ staff members, more than 40 volunteers came together from "Save Minami-Soma Project", Kashima town in Minami-Soma city, and even from outside of Minami-Soma city. Without their cooperation the distribution couldn't have been successful. We'd like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all of them.
We will continue to seek an efficient way for supporting Minami-Soma city, which has been bothered by the aftermath not only of the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami, but also of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
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