Now they’re living on their own, on the street. Eating out of garbage cans, sleeping in boxes. How humane is that?

How about this, if you’re so concerned, why don’t you invite a bunch of these stinking nutjobs to move in with you and take care of them.

At least leaving the food out keeps them from digging through a trashcan and contaminating the garbage.

I can’t believe that you actually said that, Alex.

I used to work in San Francisco, so I’m familiar with the city’s very tolerant policies toward the homeless (well, maybe “was familiar” is more like it – this was some years ago, so unless Mayor Gavin changed the ways of the City …)

Anyways, San Francisco is the only city I know of that doles out monthly checks to the homeless after only a short period of time of “residency.” A few years ago, the City got a black eye when someone discovered that they spend $40K per homeless person in services.

$40,000!

If they had just given that money to the homeless, I’m sure a lot of them wouldn’t be homeless anymore!

The word on the street was that other cities in the US actually give one-way bus fares to their homeless people to go to San Francisco…

At the end of every meal I serve, if the guests haven’t finished I offer to box the food, I can’t tell you how many times my guests say they don’t want to box up the food and I have to throw away more than half of their entree. At the end of each day, because of certain health codes, we through out enough perfectly good food to serve around 40-50 people. I can’t believe it! Every time I look at all the food we through away I think about how much someone else could use that meal.

The issue here is not so much giving leftover food to people its changing our concept of consumption. Its asking the haves to challenge their thinking to step outside of themselves and consider the have nots. It’s realistically changing our individual amount of consumption and waste so that we impact all of creation (humanity, animals and the ecosystem) for the good.

People come out to my restaurant, drop $30-40 a plate, throw away half the food and leave… oh how I would like to change that! Think about how things would change if we, the servers, challenged our guests to give their leftover meals to the guy on the street begging for money. Look at our world…oh, how that could be an element of helpful change?

“Being homeless in the world’s largest economy is the ultimate form of stupidity, mental illness, and personal irresponsibility rolled all into one.”

If this was being graded, you’d get a 33%. Fail. Homeless people aren’t stupid. And it doesn’t necessarily have to do with being irresponsible. Mental illness is a HUGE component, but it’s unfortunately overlooked by so many people (including many on this thread). It’s REAL, people. Just like any other disease. Nobody would dream of telling someone they were stupid, irresponsible, and homeless because they had cancer or a physical birth defect. So why is it all right to say that about people with mental illnesses?

Nobody has to eat anything they don’t want to. Leaving food instead of tossing it is a basically neutral act; i.e., it can’t hurt. And if someone’s hungry and wants it, then it helps.

And as for the question of whether encouraging “replating” will draw more homeless people to SF, well, that’s just silly. Nobody relocates for half a carton of chicken fried rice.

Then again…mmm, chicken fried rice.

The garbage bin just outside of the Subway in Embarcadero was very popular for scavenging for the homeless. I would see them pick meat and veggies from leftover subs pretty much every time I passed through.

i always feel bad for throwing away my leftovers, and for not volunteering for anything, so i think this would illeviate some guilt. there aren’t any homeless where i live because all the suburbanites chased them away, but if i lived in the proper social arena, i would definitely put my leftovers on top of trashcans. we waste too much in the world, and we especially waste too much (and not just food) here in the US. and we’re stingy as hell, too. it’s great that everyone claims an individual mentality because they can stand their own ground, but when it comes time to steer away from individual gratification, the group mentality is all wrong. there ARE people who can’t find a job and make it for themselves, and those who can’t grasp this are the ones saying the homeless can solve their own damn problem.

i think every little bit helps. even just an attitude adjustment about the situation helps because as long as people are THINKING about the problem, the group mentality will shift towards a more positive outlook, which will then bring forth new volunteers and more help, which will lead to a smaller homeless population. those of you who are being complete d*cks about this are only contributing to the problem. thanks.

One never asked for a thing, and always thanked people for the things they volunteered. He was pretty cool. He had a bag full of books and pictures of fat people.

The other guy hit everyone up for money, making up stories about having to feed kids that didn’t exist, or needing three dollars to catch the bus. No matter what you gave him, he always asked if you could spare more for something or another. He would also hang out behind the store and smoke crack. We called the police on him several times, because people didn’t want pizza if he was there. Regular customers would slow down, as if they were going to pull in, and then just keep driving if they saw him.

The first man was a veteran who was legitimately schizophrenic, and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, while the second one was often violent with strangers and police just to get arrested and sleep it off in jail.

The fact is, few long-term services provided for the homeless are “free” — they often pay some small amount for food or housing, or contribute through work, just as you described, and that obligation to pay generally increases with their ability to do so. I honestly don’t think you could find a homeless person being “waited on hand and foot” if you tried.

it’s much much better to get food off the top of a garbage can, than to dig it out of the nastiness.

Restaurants aren’t always dumping mountains of food in the dumpster, though, I cook and honestly in our kitchen we’re pretty conservative.

Serve food? Clean up after the homeless eat?

Here’s an idea for you: How about the homeless who are eating the free food and sleeping for free, take turns to serve and clean up after each other. We have our own families to serve and clean up after….and that’s after working all day.

No one deserves to sit on their butt collecting free food and pity, while productive citizens wait on them hand and foot and clean up after them.

i support the inspiration corporation here in chicago and i help out people as much as i can.

So point is if it is left there one who wants it can take it (easy) and if not wanted it will eventually just get pitched in the bin.

Or someone could start a service to pickup all the leftovers from restaurants and feed anyone who wants it. I know some missions already do similar for their food programs. Americans throw out more food daily than some countries get to eat…Just look around at what people leave on their plats or pitch in the bins.

Keep your mind open!!
The PhreeThinker

Obviously it’s beneficial to have resources available for the homeless. However, can you imagine how insulting it is to be told that others know what is best for you? Sometimes it’s a hospital bill when your family couldn’t afford insurance, sometimes it’s a history of abuse that makes you leave your home. Giving Spare Change is up to the individual, but don’t just sit there and not do anything at all. You have an opinion? *DO* something about it.

The article you link to encourages a fallacy: That anybody can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and live the American Dream. That kid has youth, health, and strength to help him succeed. He also *planned* it. Believe me, when somebody becomes homeless, there’s a whole lot that can happen that isn’t planned and can’t be overcome with a wink and a grin.

I am prone to say that perhaps we should encourage that behavior instead of simply satisfying an immediate desire. (But feed them while you’re educating them about the experience.)

Also, the idea that cities that offer good services for *fellow humans* are just asking for more homeless people to come and take advantage, that’s called the ‘magnet theory’ and it’s archaic. Although this almost always falls on deaf ears: Please, any body who just made a snarky or ill-informed comment about the homeless here, please, do you best to volunteer (not just once!) at a shelter, or take the time to get to know several people experiencing homeless. They’re not all the same, they’re not all amoral druggies, and usually they’re some of the kindest,most unique folks you’ll ever meet. I sure like ‘em better than housed jerks.

The difference is that many of the homeless have severe mental problems and drugs and alcohol exacerbate that problem. For instance, a drunk homeless man recently exposed himself to my girlfriend and she is still pretty shook up about it. Homeless are a real problem in this country, so yes, sometimes they need guidance.

And them buying alcohol or drugs with spare change..WHO CARES!? I bet most people who are against giving change for that reason are also against the drug war but when it comes to the homeless? No, of course they don’t deserve to get inebriated to temporarily escape their current situation. The moral police need to calm down about the homeless, they’re not a population to control or guide just because they’re extremely poor.

I will ask them if they have eaten lately and if not I’ll go and buy them a burger with fries and a drink and give that to them. Some of them will thank me profusely while other grudgingly. Depends on the person I suppose. The olders folks are usually the happiest when I do this I guess because they’re old hands and rarely get a second look by people walking by.

KRAMER: No, I didn’t make these bagels. (Jerry and George both take a bite) Yeah, they’re day-olds. The homeless won’t even touch them. (Jerry and George stop eating) Oh, we try to fool them by putting a few fresh ones on top, but they dig.. they, they test.