Food Care

Han-gorang Sharing

Han-gorang (한고랑) sharing is a solidarity practice in Hansalim which partners producers, consumers and activists in generous giving. Gorang means furrow, and the activity “sharing one furrow” involves consumer members and producers collaborating to donate food and other resources to vulnerable and low-income people.

It is part of Hansalim’s “Food Care” initiative and the way it works is that one farmer sets aside a furrow of rice crop or a portion of fruit from their orchard to donate to one of the local consumer cooperatives through a local Hansalim shop.

The local activists and consumer members get together in the shop (above each shop is a community activity centre with a kitchen and a small library) to prepare the food. They then either donate it directly or sell it to raise money for a cause.

For example, one local group made apple jam which they sold to raise money for the survivors of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Making Kimbab

In our shop, we made Kimbab from the donated rice and other Hansalim ingredients which we then took to a local care community which provides free after-school care for children whose parents can’t afford to send them to after school academies.

There, we met the children and the people who run the center. One of the Hansalim activists made a short presentation with a video about how rice is grown from seed and processed to become the rice we eat. Then we shared the food, fruit juice and rice snacks with the children.

Generosity and care

Although it was only a small gesture of generosity and care for those children, it was a very important example of the values of mutual care that flow through everything that Hansalim does and represents. Relationship building and generous care for those in need is built into Hansalim’s activities whether it is at the local Hansalim shops or in the visits of consumers to producers to help out on the farms, or the larger scale activities and international aid donations that Hansalim makes.

It seems to me to be important that the practice of generosity and care is not simply delegated away to a larger organization by donating ones money. Such larger organizational aid is of course necessary but it is equally necessary to find ways to express generosity and care in our daily lives and our interactions with our local community. As a social movement, one of Hansalim’s strengths is that it manages to embed these values in all of its activities.