{"id":59461,"date":"2023-12-07T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=59461"},"modified":"2023-12-08T07:35:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T07:35:09","slug":"camp-zama-volunteer-gains-lasting-memory-helping-children-in-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=59461","title":{"rendered":"Camp Zama volunteer gains lasting memory helping children in Tokyo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Jim McGee, left, the chief of U.S. Army Garrison Japan\u2019s Visual Information Division at Camp Zama, Japan, serves food to a child Nov. 22 with other local volunteers at the Manbow Children\u2019s Cafeteria in Setagaya, Tokyo.
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TOKYO \u2013 The day before Thanksgiving, Jim McGee was, fittingly, spending his evening giving his time to help feed children and families in need.<\/p>\n

McGee, the chief of U.S. Army Garrison Japan\u2019s Visual Information Division at Camp Zama, Japan, was at the Manbow Children\u2019s Cafeteria in Setagaya with other volunteers to help prepare and serve food to the patrons there.<\/p>\n

McGee, a navy veteran, first came to Japan in 1988 when he was stationed at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, and said he immediately fell in love with the country\u2019s people and culture. He has worked at Camp Zama on and off for 15 years since 2005.<\/p>\n

In return for the hospitality the Japanese people have shown him in his many years here, McGee said he is always looking for opportunities to give back to them. A few months ago, he learned about Manbow and its mission from a friend who co-founded the organization.<\/p>\n

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\n Jim McGee, third from right, the chief of U.S. Army Garrison Japan\u2019s Visual Information Division at Camp Zama, Japan, makes Japanese dumplings Nov. 22 with other local volunteers at the Manbow Children\u2019s Cafeteria in Setagaya, Tokyo.
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Manbow opened about a year ago to offer help the local community \u2014 not just with providing free food to children in need, but with providing support and care to young parents. The cafeteria opens twice a month for dinner.<\/p>\n

McGee asked his friend if he could be involved, and his offer was accepted right away. The cafeteria relies heavily on volunteers to help with food preparation, cooking and serving. His first opportunity to help was, coincidentally, Nov. 22 \u2014 the day before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018What a great opportunity to help provide food to a bunch of people,\u2019 because Thanksgiving is all about sharing food with friends and strangers, and it\u2019s America\u2019s greatest holiday,\u201d McGee said.<\/p>\n

After arriving at the cafeteria, he was immediately put to work stuffing small shells of dough to make Japanese dumplings, known as \u201cgyoza.\u201d He quickly got the hang of it and together with the team of volunteers, they stuffed and pan-friend between 600 and 700 of the dumplings.<\/p>\n

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\n Jim McGee, second from left, the chief of U.S. Army Garrison Japan\u2019s Visual Information Division at Camp Zama, Japan, watches Yumiko Yoshimi, president of the Manbow Children\u2019s Cafeteria, slice a Than
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Once everything was prepared, it came time for what McGee said was the most rewarding part of the evening: serving the food to the children and their parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have done that all day long because the children were so cute and polite,\u201d McGee said. \u201cEveryone was so genuinely grateful and came back to say \u2018Thank you\u2019 and ask why I was there and how I got involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yumiko Yoshimi, president of the Manbow cafeteria, opened the facility because she said she had begun to see a widening disparity in the economic classes in her community. Children from lower class families in particular tend to face a variety of complex issues, Yoshimi said, so she wanted to do something for those members of the community she has been living in for most of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the role of our cafeteria is to fill the stomachs and the hearts of those who come here and to put smiles on their faces,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Yoshimi named the cafeteria \u201cManbow,\u201d which is Japanese for \u201csunfish.\u201d In many cultures, the fish is associated with happiness.<\/p>\n

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\n Jim McGee, right, the chief of U.S. Army Garrison Japan\u2019s Visual Information Division at Camp Zama, Japan, high-fives a child Nov. 22 with other local volunteers at the Manbow Children\u2019s Cafeteria in Setagaya, Tokyo.
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\u201cWhen people think of a place like this, they probably imagine a dimly lit, quiet place where everyone is looking down,\u201d Yoshimi said. \u201cBut our cafeteria is different. Everyone here is excited, and some people are even visibly energized. For them, this place is just like their home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yoshimi said volunteers like McGee are always welcome because their contributions help to raise awareness of what Manbow is doing to help the community in Setagaya.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great opportunity for both local and foreign volunteers to realize that there are children in Japan who need help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McGee said his first opportunity to volunteer at Manbow was serendipitous because Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday. He said the day truly has no agenda other than welcoming family, friends and even strangers to share a meal together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event gave me that experience on a grand scale,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be a Thanksgiving that I\u2019ll remember for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim McGee, left, the chief of U.S. Army Garrison Japan\u2019s Visual Information Division at Camp Zama, Japan, serves food to a child Nov. 22 with other local volunteers at the Manbow Children\u2019s Cafeteria in Setagaya, Tokyo. (Photo Credit: Noriko Kudo, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs) VIEW ORIGINAL TOKYO \u2013 The day before Thanksgiving, Jim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59463,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59461"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59468,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59461\/revisions\/59468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}