Ask (Challenge? Beg?) HN: How to get help from here to there.
Hi, longtime admirer, first-time poster.  Please don't laugh but to make a long story short, one of my part time jobs while finishing my coursework is as a barista at Starbucks.<p>I'm trying to organize a drive effort to get as many coworkers as possible to donate a week's worth of tips and a week or two worth of the free coffee we get to ship overseas as part of the continuing relief effort for Japan.<p>All my ongoing research so far indicates that there is a huge discrepancy between the "everything will soon be under control" image in the media and the reality of people who still have many, many challenges to overcome at the local level (kinda like Katrina).<p>Just yesterday there was a front page New York Times article about a viral video on YouTube not too long ago where a mayor of a small town in northern Japan put his pride aside and literally bared his soul in front of the YouTube community and told everyone that his village is slowly starving to death.<p>The biggest problem I have so far is overcoming the logistical hurdle of getting items from the store-level to a central area and then from there to Japan where there are plenty of groups/organizations/local governments who say they'll gladly welcome anything they don't have to pay the shipping fees for.<p>I've tried working with FedEx, but they keep referring me to the Red Cross, whose official position seems to boil down to "Nobody wants food, just send money."<p>Other companies seem to have a mind-meld with Red Cross PR as well.<p>My attempt to reply with a photo taken from a story in a Japanese news site of people holding signs that translated to "We can't eat money, please send food and supplies" made no difference whatsoever.<p>Anyway, you people seem to be much smarter than me so I'm putting this out there; think of it as an intellectual challenge whose answer would be appreciated by many, many people:<p>How would you, if you were me, overcome the logistical challenge of shipping free donations?<p>I found excellent agencies that can deliver the non-perishable foodstuffs (mostly instant coffee), I've found a charity that specializes in, among other things, a website with "live maps" of food caches that people can figure out how to travel to (keep in mind the area is mountainous, and transportation is limited due to lack of automobiles, gas, and destroyed infrastructure).<p>I can't figure out how to get the stuff there without just, you know, paying FedEx to ship it, which would kind of make the whole money-raising aspect pointless.<p>Any and all ideas would be welcomed.<p>Thank you for your consideration.