Ron Hamakawa

 
Ron joined the EFN Board of Directors 13 years ago, helping lead EFN through the Great Recession and an increase of over 580,000 guest visits to food programs per year.

Q: How did you get involved with EFN?

A: I started off completing the term of a Director I replaced, but quickly realized that the bulk of my professional life involved feeding people, whether through restaurants or hospitals. There’s a natural fit in feeding someone, be it in a waterfront restaurant or at a food pantry.”

Q: As a Board Member, what stands out to you about EFN?

A: The ability to meet the need in the community over all these years, even though visits have grown year over year, is all because of ongoing, generous support from members of the community.

Q: What’s your favorite EFN event?

A: My favorite event is always Empty Bowls. I particularly like that it is a grassroots event that continues to evolve. We can do the event for very little cost, introduce new people to EFN and raise significant funds for EFN.

Q: Why do you think people should support EFN?

A: Because everybody has a story and we shouldn’t ever judge people. I’ve been extremely fortunate, by happenstance or luck, that my family was never challenged by food insecurity. There is a Japanese expression, mottainai, which means wasteful. Growing up, my grandmother demonstrated that wasting food was never acceptable. We focused on not spilling any grains of uncooked rice down the sink, even if it was just five grains of rice. But five grains of rice is only five grains if you’re not hungry.

Join Ron in helping make sure no person in Pierce County goes hungry. Make a donation to Emergency Food Network today!