June 1: Providing meals at the Karakuwa Elementary School shelter

In Japan, many elementary schools and junior high schools are  designated as official evacuation centers in the event of a disaster. Karakuwa Elementary School too has served as a shelter for evacuees since after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11. While many have left since, there are still around 50 evacuees who live in some of the classrooms assigned to them for shelter. Right next to them, in the same building, elementary students go to school, use the gym, and go about their daily tasks.

We prepared the meals beforehand, but were able to use the Karakuwa Elementary School kitchen for the last touch. Thank you!

Distributing the meals at this school was really quick! The people in the shelter have way more practice then we have, and gave us a hand!

SWTJ contacts shelters in advance and gathers information on the number and kind of meals to be provided. In this shelter, we were asked to provide a viking-style variety of dishes. The menu also included soup, and was well received. In this shelter, evacuees have created a system to reuse paper plates: they use plastic wrap to cover the disposable plates. This allows them to reuse the same plate a few times. In many shelters, kitchens are still not equipped with appropriate dishwashing facilities or sewage.

For dessert, we featured our special cotton candy.
It was a hit with everybody, especially the elderly!

We thank the people at the school for their warm welcome.

Text and Photos: Kanazawa Daisuke
(translated and edited for the English version by B.Y.)