Let’s Support COVID-19 Fighters!
~Deliver bento boxes to frontline workers in NY! – Progress Report Vol.14
April 2022 Report
The “Bento” Rangers!
The cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom, marking the third spring since the coronavirus outbreak and, soon, the third year of our Bento Project. Starting this year, we are providing bento boxes not only to New York’s medical professionals, but also to other frontline workers such as the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), and Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and we have therefore changed the name of the project to “Let’s Support COVID-19 Fighters! ~Deliver bento boxes to frontline workers in NY!”
Bento boxes are delivered once a week on Tuesdays. Chef Yasuoka and the restaurant staff work from early morning to deliver 130 bento boxes before lunch time.
<The menu of the regular bento for March 22, 2022>
Egg roll, simmered konjac, shrimp shumai, cherry tomatoes, garden pea, carrot in sakura shape, sweet pickled beets, yakisoba noodles with vegetable, wakame salad, potato salad, gari, boiled spinach with sesame, grilled chicken and shrimp meatballs, potato, carrot, broccoli & zucchini in Japanese style vegetable curry sauce, fried crab stick, fried chicken, vegetable spring rolls, fried carrots, fried cauliflower, mushroom mixed rice with vinegared lotus root and garden pea.
A wide variety of dishes are carefully packed one by one into the bento box. The colors are vibrant: yellow from the egg rolls, red from the beets, orange from the carrots, and green from the broccoli and garden peas.
Mushroom mixed rice is served with vinegared lotus root and garden pea to complete the bento. A colorful, spring color of the bento box is ready.
Each bento box is emblazoned with a message sticker expressing gratitude to our frontline workers from our sponsors.
At the end of March, the number of bento boxes delivered reached 13,826. As the situation remains tricky, we want to continue supporting frontline workers with meals that bring smiles to their faces while restoring their strength.
Would you like to join us in sending “gratitude and support” with Japanese bento boxes? Donations are always welcome. For more information, please click here.
