I’ve been wanting to this for a long time and I finally had the chance when I was in Philadelphia with Kevin and his mom. We all got some Philly cheesesteakes (of course ;) and they cut the sandwich in two so I planned to save the second half for the homeless man Kevin noticed sleeping on the church steps nearby. He was sleeping so I just put it next to him in a takeout bag and I noticed it said, “Thank you for your patronage.” I hope he enjoyed his hearty meal!
How to buy a homeless person lunch
How I did it: Sonny has been complaining a lot lately about the humidity, and the fact that all there is to eat is bread. In his words, his diet needs "less sweets; more meat and soda"... so today we went and sat around in an air conditioned room and ate hamburgers, and it was quite nice. I learned about his mother (owes him $1800) and his grandmother (drinks 40s on the porch with supplicant drug lords) back in LA, how he feels about going to NYC in a few days (thrilled) and how weird he thinks the island is (extremely).
Lessons & tips: There is this interestingly pervasive belief that homeless people are some sort of alien species. They're really not, as a whole... I promise. Obviously I wouldn't take someone I'd just met out to lunch, but if you've seen someone around for a while and they seem chill, there's no reason not to get some food with them. They'll probably appreciate it, and you can tick off another box in your list of daring deeds.
Resources: Mmmm... cheeseburgers and coke. It's hard to find a better combination. :)
People doing this are also doing these things:
Entries
Was on a field trip to Vancouver yesterday. Didn’t quite do this but I gave a man some candy >_<
Although I live a few bus rides away from it, I don’t visit Vancouver very often. This is where the majority of the homeless people I’ve seen in my short (and admittedly sheltered) life have resided.
Next time I’m there. I will buy someone lunch.
Last summer I was thinking about how interesting it would be to hear the life’s story of a homeless person. I’m always interested in other peoples’ lives – probably because nothing very significant ever happens in mine.
I have to make things happen.
Tell me about the things that came to YOU.
one time a man came up to me on south street and asked for money and i offered him some coffee instead. the owner of the store we were in was yelling at him but i made him able to stay anyway and felt real proud of myself for getting him a hot drink on a cold day and going against the owners who were treating him bad
That’s what I used to say. Why give them money. They are just going to use it to throw their lives away all over again. But how can someone spend money on booze or drugs when they’re not the one spending it. So next time I go to a big city and get asked for money by a homeless person… I’m going to invite them to lunch. It may require me to sit down and actually have lunch with them… but that might be even better than just buying them a meal and then walking away!




