Merch, Tofu, and Bentos: Why We’re Giving Back

Hello! 

If you're receiving this from our newsletter, thank you for subscribing, and if you are reading this on our blog, thank you for taking the time to look through!

My name is Daniel, and I started tofumerch.com as a passion project in collaboration with Ota Tofu. I wanted the first blog post on this site to be something special, and I think this is it!

I've always been a believer of giving back to the community - so much of who we are is a product of those around us, and I think that Ikoi no Kai's Bento Program is the perfect place to start.

The Portland area has such a rich history surrounding the Japanese-American community, which I've come to learn so much about and appreciate in recent years. My wife, Samantha Kondo (sadly not related to Marie!), is a yonsei - a fourth generation Japanese-American. I'm a second generation Korean-American from Beaverton who has been lucky enough to marry (recently!) into this wonderful community.

 

Choosing Ikoi no Kai's Bento Program was a no-brainer for me - it combines my love of food, cooking, and feeding people with giving back to the Japanese-American community in Portland that has been so gracious in welcoming me.

If you are like me a few years ago and don't know much about the history of Japanese-Americans in the Portland area, The Japanese American Museum of Oregon is a great place to start, along with some light reading from Wikipedia and Travel Portland. You can also check out the Portland Japanese Garden. (This is also an obligatory shout out, since my father-in-law was the former head gardener and was with them for 40 (!) years.) 

I hope that this is the start of something special! I hope that tofumerch.com can not only be a place where you can get dope merch, but also a place where we can give back to our communities. 

So, thank you, again! Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you for supporting our business! Whether you're just browsing, purchasing, or following us on social media (@otatofumerch), your support means the world to me. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to say hi, feel free to drop me a line.

-Daniel

 

p.s. I know this is a tofu merch site, but the Korean in me has some super secret kimchi-flavored designs that I want to release. Stay tuned... feel free to let me know if you're interested as well...