Marugohan

The world continues to be challenged by COVID and here in Japan things are no different. 

On the positive side, 99% of people in Japan continue to wear masks. Moreover, people understand the need to take tempratures and santize before entering facilities. Our users are no different.

For nearly two years we have been using a coupon system. Each user is given five coupons which they can use over a 2-month period. This has been a highly effective method to provide food to a large number of people in a relatively short period of time. However, we are now looking at the next stage when we can return to the roots of marugohan which was giving back as one accesses the food they need.

Our goal is that by the end of the year we will have established the necessary processes and put into place systems to make this transition possible. When we first opened in October 2019, we provided 30kg of food each month to households. At the time this made sense considering how much aid we had provided pre-marugohan. However, in terms of logistics it was a cumbersome program to account for the kilos at checkout and it did not accurately reflect the value of the food being received. 

Our goal is to operate marugohan like a store in which recipients are given maru points and the value of the food is very similar to what one would find in the supermarket. For example, if 1ltr of milk is ¥200 in the store, then in marugohan that same milk would be 200 maru points. We believe this shopping experience will make it easier and more equitabel for users.

We thank you for your support.

Links:

• Website for marugohan
• Expo2020 Dubai & marugohan