Second Harvest Japan Opens Its 2nd Food Pantry in Naha on December 4

Expanding Sustainable Food Pantries Across Okinawa

Second Harvest Japan (2HJ) (https://2hj.org), Japan’s first food bank headquartered in Taito-ku, Tokyo, and Food Bank Second Harvest Okinawa (2h Okinawa) (https://www.2h-okinawa.org/), based in Tomigusuku City, Okinawa Prefecture, collaboratively opened the second Second Harvest Food Pantry (2HFP) (https://2hfoodpantry.2hj.org/) in Naha City on December 4, 2024. The 2HFP Naha store will operate with funding from dormant deposit business expenses.

The newly opened Naha store adopts a shopping style that allows each user to choose what they need from a wide variety of food, such as vegetable, refrigerated and frozen foods, in addition to processed foods as same as the Tomigusuku store which opened in November last year as the first 2HFP store. The Tomigusuku store opens once a month, while since Naha City has a well-developed public transportation system and is accessible from a wider area, 2HJ and 2h Okinawa plan to operate the Naha store every Monday and Wednesday, twice a week, to meet the greater needs in food assistance.

• “I’m glad to get sweets, which I usually can’t afford to buy for my kids.”
• “I was so happy to receive various foods for my children. The refrigerator at home was nearly empty during the summer vacation.”

Over the next five years, 2HJ and 2h Okinawa aim to build a robust food safety net, providing sustainable food pantry services to support 10,000 people in Okinawa who require food assistance.

*The target of 10,000 is estimated based on the target of 100,000 people in the “Tokyo 2020: 100,000 People Project (https://2hj.org/100000pj/)” implemented by 2HJ and the population ratio of Okinawa compared to Tokyo, which is about 1/10.

The 2HFP Naha store will operate with funding from dormant deposit business expenses.