Last week, I watched the Changemaker TV program which showed the feeding project being run in some primary schools in Malawi by using funds donated by Table For Two (TFT) , a Japanese non-profit organization. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a Malawian lady speaking about the effectiveness of the feeding program in Chichewa on Japanese Television. It was as if I was watching TV Malawi.

After checking the TFT website, I found that it was founded in 2007 with an aim of simultaneously addressing hunger in the developing world, and life-style related diseases in the developed world. TFT’s motivation comes from the fact that

In our world of 6 billion, 1 billion in the developing world are suffering from hunger and malnutrition; every 5 seconds, one child under 5 years of age dies due to one of these causes. At the same time, however, another 1 billion, this time in the developed world, suffer from obesity and other lifestyle-related diseases – the detrimental consequences of having too much food.

TFT’s main program functions within school and work cafeterias, where one healthy meal bought in the developed world can also provide a meal in a developing nation through a 20 cent donation. Calories saved in the developed world are thus substituted by calories consumed in the developing world.

TFT has now provided 1,035,359 school meals to hungry children in Uganda, Malawi and Rwanda. Despite its success in providing meals, TFT also recognizes the importance of basic kitchen facilities with roofs and walls that enable the provision of safe meals for children.

Mwandama in Malawi, one of the supported countries, currently has 5 schools that are badly in need of a kitchen. TFT is taking the initiative to improve the situation by building a kitchen in the area and purchasing the necessary facilities. TFT has, therefore,  organized a Let us build a kitchen event where participants will learn more about the project and how they can help.

The details of the event are as follows:

Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Time: 19:30-22:00

Location: Plus ING Attic, DAIKANYAMA, 12-28 Sarugakucho Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Ticket Price: ￥5,000 (at least 80% of proceeds to go toward funding a kitchen in Malawi’)

RSVP and inquries:  tft03 at tablefor2.org

I will be one of the participants. If you live in the Kanto area, let’s go together. Otherwise, expect a followup post from me toward the end of next week.

Related posts:

1. At the Table for Two Fundraising Event in Tokyo, Japan
2. The 2009 Malawian style Christmas Party in Tokyo, Japan
3. Buy the World AIDS Day Calendar to support the Malawi AIDS Assistance Project
4. Photos from the 2009 Nsima party in Tokyo, Japan
5. School dropout jailed for innovation in Malawi [Update]
6. Tokyo CGM Night Episode III:Poken launched in Japan!