Ideas on Feeding Homeless Folks

On Quora, the question was asked, "How do I feed the homeless?"

Let me give you a couple suggestions that I’ve tried:

1. Find one homeless person and invite them out to dinner. Ask them questions, listen to them. Next time, take a different person out or the same person. But get to know them.

2. Invite a homeless person to your home to have dinner with your family. If they seem okay, invite them again.

3. Go to an organization in your area that serves the homeless. Learn what they do and why they do it. Ask a lot of questions. Then, if you feel ready for the next step, find an area of need that they aren’t meeting and see if you can meet it.

4. Find someone who knows the local homeless and ask them to help you set up a meal for the homeless in your area. Put up fliers and serve a meal in a central area for the homeless. If it works out well, come back the next week.

5. Keep sandwiches or well-wrapped food in your car and hand them out to beggars or at camps you see by the road.

Don't be pushy, don't give more than you came to give, be attentive to them as a human being.

Try not to replicate what is already being done in your area.  Join, don't replace.

Gratitude

In my business, I deal with a lot of donors and volunteers.  That’s really the lifeblood of work with the homeless.  We don’t have money to keep everyone fed and warm, so we seek donations of food and clothes.  And there is more work that our small group can do ourselves, so we seek volunteers to help us accomplish big tasks.

But there are rituals for donors and volunteers.  Donors usually want their donations to be more than a simple donation.  They’d like a receipt to mark their donation to take it off of their taxes.  Some would like their donation to be recognized in a newsletter or in our blog.  Many donors want to tell us specifically how to use the money, even if that isn’t our need at the time.

Volunteers really want the same thing.  They don’t want to be told what to do, or how to do something.  They want to tell you what they will do, and when to do it.  They want to do something you don’t need done, at times.  And, of course, they want your gratitude, and possibly a letter of recommendation for the hour of work they’ve given you.

Not all volunteers or donors are so insistent.  Most are wonderful, and gracious and so kind.  And I have to say, almost all of the homeless volunteers and donors are wonderful.  And this is because they are giving back.  They are grateful for the opportunity to give and to work, because they feel like they’ve paid a small back for all that they’ve received.  Sure, the clothes they donate may need to be cleaned and the service may, on occasion, need to be done again.  But the gracious attitude is one of the best things on earth.

"Who loves more, the one who has been granted much, or the one who has been granted little?  He who has been granted little, loves little."

How To Respond To Beggars

It can be a struggle to know what to do for folks who approach us for money, or who are holding a sign asking for support. We want to help, but we often don’t know how. If we give them money, will they use it for drugs or alcohol? By giving them something, are we perpetuating their cycle of poverty? Is it better to give to an organization?

As the debate rages on, and we give neither to the beggar nor an organization that helps them, the one flying the sign is there on the street, in need. The rumors are not true—beggars do not make an excellent salary. A really good day might gain them thirty dollars. But normally, they might get ten or less.

As for alcohol and drugs, yes, some will spend the money they receive to get drunk. Others are hoping to get a place to sleep for the night. Others are just wanting to get a decent meal.

One thing we need to keep in mind, however, that a person begging is desperate for something. No one stands with a sign or approaches people for money unless they are desperate. It isn’t exactly the best employment opportunity—one only takes it if other options are lacking. To beg is to face being ignored, disrespected and openly insulted. No one would take this as their job unless they are at the bottom of their options.

So what do we do? The choice that I have made is to carry around with me items that would assist the beggars, but would not be used to destroy themselves. Below, I have listed a few items that would be used to help a beggar, without any detriment. Some of these items we might have in our cupboards or closets. I just carry these items near my driver’s seat, so I am ready to pass them out to anyone holding a sign as I’m passing by. In this way, I am able to show Christ’s mercy and love without any harm.

By the way, if you would like to hand out tracts to folks, or a list of meals in the area, they are only appreciated if a practical gift accompanies the paper. If you just give paper, that’s a good way to encourage littering. But if you display Christ’s love, they might assume that your offer of the gospel is sincere and not just someone else disrespecting them.

What you can give: 

Socks

A friendly chat about the weather

Breakfast bars or energy bars

A hamburger

A coffee

A gift card to a local coffee shop

A gift card to a grocery store (some stores have gifts cards in which you cannot buy alcohol with them)

An apple

A sandwich (Food prepared at home might be refused by some, because they are concerned that someone might harm them)

Foot or hand warmers (you can buy a pack of six for pretty cheap, and they keep you warm for six hours)

A small blanket (not too hard to carry with them)

A kind word (Very rare in their business, and VERY welcome)

An individual juice

A bagged lunch

Individual chips

Besides this, the other thing I attempt to do is to talk to the person to find out who they are and what their specific needs are. Some folks are taken aback by this, but others really appreciate being treated as a human being and not just a post holding a sign (or a monster).

Be Compassionately Wise

The Beggar's Song

This is a song I wrote in India in 1985. I was followed by a old woman, desperate for my money, which she knew I must have because I was clearly American. I went into a shop to escape her, but she waited for me for a half hour and then followed me for more than a mile. I don't remember if I gave in to the impulse to give to her (I was advised not to), but it had such an impact on me that I wrote this song, from her point of view:

Don't turn your eyes from me
Don't turn away
I see the wealth you hide within
Share it, I pray
You don't have to squeeze my hand
You know I am poor
I only want a little I don't
Ask you for more
My clothes tattered, my flesh torn
Flies fill my face
You reason I'm unworthy of you
I need your grace
Your wealth abounds and begs release
Please heal my sore
Your pockets full yet sewn with greed
Do you need it more?

Don't give me pictures from your camera
Movies nor magazines
You have the life I need to live
Give me bread, don't give me jeans
You turn away from my sadness
But what would Jesus do?
Would he give me dust and say "Go away"?
Or heal me and say, "Be true"?

A Reminder for Me

"By becoming poor ourselves, by loving until it hurts, we become capable of loving more deeply, more beautifully, more wholly."

"We have to accept suffering with joy, we have to live a life of poverty with cheerful trust and to minister to Jesus in the poorest of the poor with cheerfulness. God loves a cheerful giver."

Mother Teresa

Reciprocity

How blessed is he who makes plans for the poor; The LORD will deliver him in a day of trouble.
The LORD will protect him and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.
The LORD will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.
Psalm 41:1-3

Just as we do to others in need, the Lord will do to us in our time of need.

What The Bible Says About The Poor

No matter how great you think you are, if you oppress the poor, God will crush you and make you die. (Psalm 82)

Those who oppress the poor will die at God’s hand, but the righteous poor will be given the wealth of the wicked. (Psalm 37)

The society that listens to God’s word and provides for the poor will have no poor among them. However, because of the disobedience of his people, the poor will always be among the people. (Deuteronomy 15:4-11)

While many love the rich, even the neighbor of the poor hates them. If you hate your neighbor in need, you sin, but if you help the poor, God blesses you. (Proverbs 14:20-21)

The Creator will punish the one who mocks the poor. (Proverbs 17:5)

Sell what you have and give to the poor. (Luke 12:33)

Invite the poor to your parties and events. (Luke 14:13)

Associate with the lowly, treating them as equals, and so love your neighbor as yourself. (James 2:1-8)

The one who is kind to the poor is giving a loan to God and God will repay in time. (Proverbs 19:17)

Until the poor are assisted, God will not listen to our prayers. But after we do justice to the oppressed, then the Lord will answer our cries. (Isaiah 58:6-11)

The economics of God is that those who have more than what they need give to those who have need, so that everyone’s need is met. At another time, one who was given to will give to those who gave, so all give and all receive in their need. (II Corinthians 8:12-15)

When you give, give out of compassion and care for the other person’s need, or it does you no good. (I Corinthians 13:3)

When you give to the poor, do it for God’s sake, not for your own benefit so others will be impressed or give you benefit for your giving. If you give to be rewarded by men, you will receive nothing from God for your work. (Matthew 6:1-3)

Top Ten Excuses for Not Giving To The Poor

1. "They are stealing from hard working people"— Keeping one’s possessions secure They just want to take advantage of me

2. "They need to get a job"— They are just lazy

3. "I’m up to my eyeballs in debt."— I don’t have any extra

4. "My family comes first"—I need to care for my own first

5. "The poor will be with us always"—The need is so big, who can fix it?

6. "They’ll just use it for drugs and alcohol"— They will use what I give for evil purposes

7. "I worked for my money"—I can use my wealth as I please

8. "I need to be a good steward of God’s money"—Giving to the poor is a waste of resources

9. "Is it the right thing to do?" Money doesn’t really help them anyway

And the only real excuse that I've never heard:
10. It’s too much work to do it right

Parable of the Brokers

Once there was a brokerage whose owner told the brokers to invest in some high-risk stock. “It doesn’t matter which stock it is, really,” he said. “Just invest in the stock in companies that don’t look like they’re going to make it. Some of them will succeed marvelously, and we will gain a profit in the end.”

One broker in the firm denied to do any such thing. “I won’t fritter away our clients capital on just any old company! I will wait until the company shows a profit, then I will invest.”

One broker agreed with the owner and said, “Yes, what the owner says is correct.” And he invested in high-risk stock. However, when he lost a good deal of money in a dot-com investment, he withdrew and invested only in conservative stocks from that time.

Another broker agreed with the owner, but said, “The high-risk companies are best, but it is best not to actually invest in them. Rather, we should educate the companies, and those who grow will be those we invest in.” So he followed his own advice and educated companies to follow his own wisdom, and invested in those who already showed a profit.

But the owner’s son took what the owner said to heart. And while at first, the son’s investments were spotty, in the end, he pulled the largest profit. And the owner saw what all of these brokers had done. He demoted the first three for failing to do what he said, but the last, his son, he raised up to be a partner in the company. So it is in the kingdom of God.


Luke 14:21-23 Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” “Sir,” the servant said, “what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.” Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.”

Luke 12:33 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.”

Mark 2:17 “It is not those who are healthy who need a healer, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”


We are to invest our time and resources in the poor, the needy, the helpless and the worthless. God will cause the growth, and we will obtain the reward of the Father.

Giving Tip #13--Give to Caring Organizations

It is good to give through an organization. There are many organizations out there that really care about the people they serve and really give them hope. However, there are just as many organizations that see serving the needy as just a prospect for making money. Some organizations began well, but ran out of steam. Other organizations do not encourage their volunteers to be kind or loving. Don’t assume that because the organization sounds good on paper that it is good. You have to see it in action, or interview someone who has received benefits from the organization. Again, this takes time. But giving in love requires time, if nothing else.

This doesn't go against the previous tip, to give to people personally. Both are important. To give to a shelter may provide warmth to the person who you gave a nutrition bar to earlier in the day.

Giving Tip #12-- Don't Give Toward Others' Destruction

Giving sugar to a diabetic would not be an act of love, but of apathy or hatred. Even so, giving money so someone can continue a drinking or drug binge isn’t compassion, but hatred. Don’t give to people in a way that would cause them to destroy themselves or others.

In following this principle, I have made it a policy to very rarely give money to people. I found—with myself as with others—that cash is too easily diverted to what is wanted in the immediate rather than what is needed. If someone needs help with their rent—pay the landlord. If someone needs food—give them food, not cash. To those holding signs by an onramp, I have a supply of nutrition bars that I can hand them. If someone is panhandling, I will often ask them what they need and try to provide the need, rather than cash. In this way, we can be meeting the need that we know, not supplying the destructive habit that we don’t know.

Giving Tips #11: Give Out of Concern, Not Self-Interest

Give because you care for the person. Giving is not something we should do in order to gain our own brownie points. We give because the other person has a need. We shouldn’t give because we want them to think well of us. We shouldn’t give because we want a tax write-off. We shouldn’t give because we can’t stand to have them ask. We should give because they need. We should give because we have compassion for them.

Also, let's not give out of guilt. That is one of the best ways for us to give wrongly. That's the time we hand money to someone who shouldn't have it, or just "give in" to whatever demands are being made on us. If we give out of guilt, we haven't considered what is the most loving action to do for them.

On the other hand, we should not fail to give simply because we don’t have the right “feelings” toward a person. Yes, our motivation is very important, but in the end, the person’s need is more important. It is better to give to those in need with wrong motivation, that to stand before the Lord, trying to explain why we never gave at all.

Giving Tip #10-- Give To A Person's Need

Just because someone is socially bound to us—such as a family member or a friend—that doesn’t mean that we are responsible to give every time they ask. Just because a person looks down and out doesn’t mean that they need spare change. We need to find out what the person really needs and then determine what the best way to meet that need. To do this, we have to follow the complicated process of asking questions and receiving honest answers. Sometimes this is easy to do, sometimes this is difficult. No matter what, it is almost never quick. Interview the person you want to give to, and find out what they really need.

On the other hand, just because a person has taken advantage of your generosity before, or because they are in trouble because of their sin, that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be helped this time. We must evaluate the person’s need—not our feelings about them, or our judgements about them. If they are in need, we are responsible to give.

I notice, especially around Christmas time, that people love to give to children. I understand-- there is joy in giving to children and you feel even better if you give to children who are poor. They don't get toys as other children do.

But often the purpose of giving to children is to make us feel good about ourselves, or to help the children "keep up with the Joneses".

But it disturbed me this year and last that people were so generous to my children, going out of their way to generously giving a lot of unnecessary toys to my kids, when there were homeless people on the edge of death because they had no warmth.

The last couple weeks it was difficult to get churches involved in granting the homeless shelter, hand warmers, gloves, coats, etc. But giving unnecessary gifts to kids who already have their needs met was easy.

It just disturbs me.

Giving Tip #9: Take Time to Think

Giving in love often requires some preparation ahead of time. Don’t allow anyone to rush you into giving without you thinking about it first. Take time to consider what you are going to do. If you meet people on the street asking for change, you might want to have energy bars available on your person. If you want to give a large amount for an organization, take time to find out more about the organization. Just like we shouldn’t impulse buy, we also shouldn’t impulse give. Take your time and consider what the best thing to do is—not the quickest.

Be Compassionately Wise!

Giving Tip #8: Consider The Receiver

The best gift in love is the gift where the giver considers specifically the person they are giving to. We know that our gift is well received when the person responds, “How did you know?” It shows our care and respect for the other person when a gift is specifically suited to their needs and wants.

This is the same for the poor. If a person is homeless, you want to think about their situation and give something that is suited for their situation. A pair of socks is more welcome for most people on the street than a four person tent (where in the city would someone put up a four person tent?). A mentally ill person might appreciate a video rather than a book of crosswords (although, I know a couple mentally ill people who love crosswords, so you don’t always know). A street person wouldn’t have anywhere to plug in an electric razor, but they could really use a nice blade razor with a pack of fresh blades.

We just need to think ahead and make the gift suitable for the person’s situation and need. This is why it is often good to ask before we give, if it is possible.

Giving Tip #7: Don't Put Rules on the Gift

The fact of the matter is, when you give something, it isn’t yours anymore. We all recognize this, so when we receive a gift, we will use it in accord to our best interest. This is why when Aunt Rachel gives us another orange knitted sweater, we try to find some unsuspecting person to pass it on to. It isn’t Aunt Rachel’s anymore, and what we do with it is our business.

This is the same with our gifts. When we give to someone else, it’s theirs to do with as they please. If they want to sell it, that’s their option. If we give them money and they do something with the money we don’t find appropriate, that’s their business.

But we do find ourselves being offended if a person uses our gift in a way that we would dislike. So we might be tempted to put a rule on the gift: “Don’t do this with it”, we might say in passing. Please don’t. It insults the person you are giving to, as if the worst case scenario was what they had in mind all along. And if they do use it that way, then they would feel bad if you saw them again.

The time to consider what a person would do with a gift is BEFORE you give it, not as you gift it.

Giving Tip #6: Make Small Talk

As you give,take time to chat with the poor. Talk about the weather, ask them how they are doing, offer them luck or a prayer. Just by being positive and hopeful, you can improve a person’s life and make the well-being of everyone better.

How is this so? One of the greatest difficulties of poverty is isolation, feeling left out of society. A homeless person, a person with AIDS, a jobless person, a mentally ill person often feels that they are no longer a part of "normal people", that they have been left behind. They feel that they aren't as "worthy" as the people they see driving their cars.

To have a normal conversation with someone who has felt outcast makes them feel a part of humanity again, as if they belong. Again, this may seem like a small thing, but it can change the attitudes of the poor. And if the attitudes of the poor change, especially toward "normal" society, then they act different and eventually attitudes toward them will change as well.

Giving Tip #5: Small Gifts That Make An Impact

Carry in your car items that you can give to the homeless that will make a small, but significant improvement in a homeless person’s life:
o Hand warmers
o Socks
o Bags of granola
o Nutrition bars
o Water bottles
You can give these instead of money to those who hold signs or beg and know that your gift is going to meet a need.

To have more examples of this, check out Anawim's website:
http://www.nowheretolayhishead.org/beggarsandsignholders.html

Giving Tip #4-- Don't Ask Where The Homeless Live

If you’ve got homeless folk, they may not be able to trust you thoroughly, or just not be sure. So one of the rules is just not to ask where they live. If they tell you where they camp, that’s fine, but don’t ask. It is technically illegal to be without a house in almost all urban areas, so it’s a difficult thing to answer.

Giving Tip #3-- Be Generous

No, the person does not deserve our gift, that is true. None of us DESERVE gifts, or else it isn’t really giving, it is paying back. So if we are going to give, we might as well go “whole-hog” and give in a generous way. Heck, if we’ve got it, then we should share it!

To be generous is not just to encourage someone to be gluttonous or a freeloader. Generosity meets an entire need, if possible, and isn’t stingy. It communicates a care for the person in need more than the process of meeting the need. Generosity also provides the best available to give, not just the lowest quality.

The Scripture says that God is generous, and we see this in His providing us all food, sometimes richly granting our need beyond what we can ask or think. We should be like God in our generosity to others. If God has been generous to us, we should act in the same manner to those in need.