Artwork!

Image is copyrighted by Jason Carrigan 2011

Over the last few months, I have been trying to come up with designs for a logo and a t-shirt design for free lunch, and it has been slow going. Today, I would like to announce the new logo, designed by Amber (thanks Amber!!).

Does that rock or what?

There has also been quite a bit of development on the business side of things. The form for registering free lunch as an official non-profit organization is almost complete, and I would like to get that done before the end of the year.


Last weekend was pretty cool because we had a lot of volunteers, half new half had volunteered before. I had a meeting in the morning and I didn't get back to the house until 11:30. According to the schedule, we should be finished packing lunches by 11:30, and guess what, when I got back to the house, they were exactly on schedule. Without me being there. Awesome. I have the best volunteers.


What do you think of the new logo?

Raving Fans

Ever since my encounter with a drug dealer a few months ago, I have mostly been turned off to them, and quite honestly a little scared of going back there. I have served lunches in the outskirts of the park where the drug dealers hang out, and I have really wanted to go back there, but I was not wanting to have an encounter with them like I have in the past.

Yesterday it was raining, which means most people are inside and there aren't that many people walking around. We had to work a little harder to find people, which always reminds me of how isolated anyone can become. When rain hits, we head for shelter. Out of the open and in to the places where the rain can't touch us. Sometimes those places can be filled with friends and families, and other times those can be places of isolation. I know what the outside of the buildings look like in the hood, I can't imagine what the insides of those places look like.

I drove around the block where the drug dealers hang out, and saw a drug deal going down, my enthusiastic friend, never having witnessed a drug deal going down, was so excited that she was able to experience that for the first time. So we went around the block thinking that when we circled back, they would be finished with their transaction, and it would be safer to give them a lunch. They were done, and we gave both of them a lunch. It is easy to figure out who the drug dealers are, because they are dressed much nicer than anyone else around there. This drug dealer looked pretty mean, but he was a nice enough guy, and we gave him a lunch and he thanked us.

We had to drive around quite a bit to find people, and when a car is driving around in circles in that area, it most often means that someone is looking for drugs. A guy waved us down, and I knew why he was waving at us (to offer us drugs), and so we drove over to where he was at. I rolled down the passenger window, he leaned his head down, and with a big smile, he said, "whats up?". This translates to: what kind of drugs would you like today? I smiled back and told him we have some lunches and asked him if he was hungry. He paused for just a second, and he figured out who we were, and he laughed and asked us what was in the lunch. He didn't care for ham sandwiches, but he asked for a water, and we gladly gave it to him.

He was the nicest drug dealer I have ever met. If I bought drugs, I would go to that guy every day. There was something about him that was just pleasant to be around. He was encouraging, he had a nice smile, and he was happy to serve me.

It was refreshing to have a pleasant interaction with people in that area. It is so hard to know what to expect going there because when people are on drugs, they are unpredictable. The Hispanic community center is very predictable. Smiles, everyone is glad we are there, the language barrier always makes communication a little difficult, but it is really fun. Drugs are just bad news. The addiction binds people up so that it makes them very difficult to be around. It isolates people to a certain way of life that isn't good for them and not good for the people around them.

When I meet a guy like that, it renews my hope and my purpose for going down to that part of town. I give them what I can, and be there in the ways that I am able to. I can only hope that they receive even a fraction of the joy I experience.

i'm lovin' it.

That is the current slogan for McDonalds. I remembered when McDonalds had a sign that used to read 50 million served, and then it kept going up and up. I think now they just say billions and billions served. So tonight I decided to add up how many lunches that have been served through free lunch, not quite in the same league as McDonalds, but 560 is not too shabby in my opinion.

In case you didn't know, I was McDonalds Employee of the month in September of 1993 at store #6003, located in Apple Valley, MN, one of the busiest locations in the Minneapolis area. That's not too shabby either. The store is located on the main road that goes through all the southern suburbs. When I got bored, I would sneak down to the utility room, open up the breaker panel, and turn the breaker for the big sign out front on and off for about a minute. People freaked out and didn't know what was going on, not even the managers. I just smiled and kept working hard....and no one ever knew....until now.

Values

This week my mom is in town, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about the values of free lunch. She went with us downtown to serve lunches on Saturday, and it was fun to have her along because she lives in Los Angeles, and we don't get a lot of time to hang out.

I always find it interesting that more girls volunteer than guys. In my observation, girls are so much better at getting involved and helping out. I don't understand why more guys don't join in, because the girls are cute, and a lot of my guy friends don't have girlfriends. It is a mystery to me...what better way to get to know a girl than to spend a few hours together on Saturday serving lunches??

I have been asked several times in the last few weeks if I would be interested in receiving food donations that aren't the standard free lunch menu items. Good food too...a friend of mine is a caterer, and she fixes food every weekend, always has leftovers, and she doesn't have a good place to take them. Another friend offered to take a grill downtown and put on a big bbq for people. These are good offers, and I have been a little conflicted about accepting them.

The vision of free lunch has evolved, or formed in to something that would resemble a city wide, or even regional charity organization that reaches invisible communities in the vicinity of a person that wishes to become involved. In order to accomplish that, I would like to develop a model that is so simple, that anyone can repeat it. The formula is simple, make a lunch menu, go to the store and buy it, go to wherever the people are at, and hang out.

Finding an invisible group of people is hard enough (because they are invisible), and each lunch has its own set of unpredictable events, so I think it is important to make as many parts of the process as planned and predictable (and efficient) as possible. I go to the grocery store at the same time, I even pack the cart the same way, we pack the lunches the same way, go to the same places at the same time in the same car. If someone wants to help out, and it doesn't fit in to the set of expectations that I operate under, I typically turn down the help. I feel bad, but as this little experiment is being built, it is important to stick to the values that hold it together. So here is what I see as the valuable parts of free lunch:

• Set very clear, and very low expectations of what I am willing to offer. Lunch and hanging out are two things that I know I can deliver on a consistent basis.
• Seeking out and connecting with invisible people is the fundamental purpose, and value.
• Sticking to a plan and model that can be duplicated is a value that will serve as the fundamental growth strategy.

That's about it. I try to keep it simple.

As I pulled up to the community center on the west side, one of the guys remembered my name, and that feels good. There were a bunch of people there, and I didn't see Alejandro. I will try to give an update if I hear from him again.

Livin the dream

Sometimes I go to the grocery store by myself and meet the volunteers back at the house and we pack lunches and go downtown. I have a plan when I go to the grocery store. I have a planned path that I follow every time I am in the grocery store, and the groceries go in the cart the same way. The lunches are packed the same way and handed out in the same way every week. Some people think I am a little...ahem...compulsive? For me it is all about efficiency. If I follow the same path in the grocery store, the groceries go in the cart and come off the cart so the person packing the groceries can pack them in such a way that they are easy to unpack at the house and easy to pack back in to lunches. I hold these plans loosely, and if I have people with me at the grocery store, I don't mind if the capri suns are stacked neatly in the front of the cart, and I don't mind if the snack packs aren't stacked neatly next to the capri suns, and I don't mind if the bread isn't stacked on the capri suns, or if the sliced meat is in the child seat, I do mind, however, if my volunteers purse is in the child seat, because come on, that just looks weird.

I make plans and hope that everything goes to plan. I also have hopes and dreams for free lunch. The purpose of free lunch is to meet the physical needs of people, and try to get to know them and be in community with them. I don't know anything about being homeless or being poor, so I don't assume that I know the life of a homeless person. I also don't assume that I know how to serve them. My dream is that someone would ask me to help them, that I would be invited in to their life, and I would have the opportunity to respond with whatever resources I am able to offer.

I have this notion that no one really wants to know the problems and junk of my life, so I often don't invite people in to the messy places in my life. Its easy to show someone the places in my life that are in order and comfortable to share, but it is a struggle, even with my good friends, to invite them in to the messes.

Alejandro is from Guatemala, his wife has breast cancer. We were serving lunch at the community center when Alejandro approached me telling his story in Spanish. I did my best to try to understand him, but I couldn't fully understand him. I asked Santos to help translate for me. Santos speaks English and Spanish, and he was happy to help me. How about that, now I am the one with needs, and the tables are turned. Freaking awesome. Santos translated for Alejandro, and Alejandro began to invite me in to a place in his life where he doesn't have it all together, and its a mess. I felt so privileged to hang out with him in his messy place.

I learned the lesson that we all have a deep need to share our whole lives with eachother. To know that we are not alone in our struggles and troubles is one of the most fulfilling feelings in the world. In my experience, most of us are walking around pretending that we have it all together, but the truth is that we are all fragile, and we don't know how to hold it all together. It is so much easier to make the best of things when we are known, and when others know what is going on. It doesn't matter if they can fix it, or have resources to provide help, but for some reason being known helps to hold it together. My belief is that when our burdens are known, they are a lighter load to carry.

So my hope is for more open doors, not only with the people I serve, but in my own life. I think we all have the ability to put on a facade of perfection, but we aren't perfect. It seems like a simple enough lesson, but it is hard to put in to practice. Baby steps. It doesn't matter if the groceries in the cart are perfectly situated, the same every time. That's not life. Life sometimes means the groceries can just be thrown in the cart in no particular order. Maybe even taking a different path through the grocery store, everyone needs a little adventure. One step at a time though...it gets easier with time.

If you have the chance to have Alejandro in your thoughts, I am sure he would appreciate it. I didn't get too many details, but he doesn't see his wife very often, and I am sure it is a stress on the whole family. He would appreciate you keeping him in mind.

I Heart Google

And Google hearts me, #1 baby

However, I didn't give an update from the last free lunch, and the next one is right around the corner. On Cinco de Mayo. Maybe some sombreros are in order.

More soon.

Normal

After each Saturday I serve, I try to think about what was different, or what I learned, or who I met, and how it changed me. This last Saturday was just a normal non-eventful Saturday. I am thankful for non-eventful. It's good when it is just pleasant. When I know what to expect and when it goes the way I planned it, that's good.

We did run in to one peculiar fellow down in the hood. There is this small apartment building that looks like a crack house. There are usually about 6 or 7 guys who hang out in front of it and for some reason I am drawn to that place. It is around the corner from the drug dealers, but it is clearly a place where squatters squat.

There were a few guys hanging out in front of the place when I pulled up, one of them looked a little lost, and I don't think he spoke english. We asked him if we wanted a lunch, and he looked around for a while, and then he just started running.

I wonder what the story is behind all of those people. How did they get where they are? How do I find out? There are so many people I serve that rarely recognize people. A few people know me because included in every lunch is a Capri Sun. People love the Capri Suns. People ask for them specifically.

It's good that people are getting to know me. Especially the drug dealers. They know my car now. They know about the Capri Sun's too.

I am sure there will be challenges ahead, but it is restful to just keep the normal procedure running. The danger is still there and the ride is still exciting, but it is a familiar road.

Sweet ride

After last week's brush with death, I was encouraged by the past few weeks. Here's the scoop:

• There has been a significant increase in interest from volunteers
• Web traffic has increased
• Last weekend two brand new volunteers joined me
• There has been an increase in donations
• A friend of mine took his family and handed out lunches downtown

It is nice to have a positive wave of stuff happening. Starting Free Lunch has had its ups and downs, but one thing is for sure, it has always been a sweet ride. Its kind of like driving too fast through the mountains. The danger is real, the likely consequences of skidding off the mountain is death, going around a corner too fast and starting to feel the tires slip is exhilerating, eyes glued to the road, calculating every turn, planning each pass, then hitting the straightaway and just flying.

I love this life.

Stayin Alive

The weather is getting nicer, which meant that there were a lot of people working and the hispanic community center was nearly empty! I love going there. The people are nice and thankful, they always smile, and the awkwardness created by our inability to communicate is fun. It's empty because a lot of people were working, which I am happy about, but I missed seeing my friends.

Also, when the weather is nice, there are a bunch of people at the park on the east side. Lots of parents with their kids playing. There are a lot of people in need there, so the lunches go quickly. With the nice weather, I expected a large crowd. So when we started up Harrison Street, and I saw a lot of people, I told the two girls with me to roll up the windows because we always serve lunch there outside with the car doors locked so people won't be able to get in the car.

There are a few people who know me, and know what I am about, so I am never surprised when people approach the car as I am pulling up. I usually smile at them and get out of my car to serve them lunch. As we were driving to where we get out of the car, a guy was walking quickly toward the car, and I was glad that a regular recognized me. When he got in the street, I could tell he didn't know me and he assumed I was there threatening his turf. The park is prime real estate for drug traffic, and this guy was the neighborhood watch dog, a mean one too. I rolled down my window as he approached the car and he yelled at me in a way that made me more scared than I have ever been while I have been doing free lunch. I have been approached before, and scared before, but this guy shook me. I told him I was here to hand out lunches to whoever wanted one, and asked him if he was ok with it. He let me know he was cool with it, and walked away. When I got out of the car and started getting lunches out, it was immediately obvious who the drug dealers were and who wanted food. The drug dealers scattered, and the hungry people came and got lunch. Eventually the watchdog came and I gave him a lunch too.

There is good and evil that exist in this world. We will probably never all agree about who or what is good, but it is easy to agree on what evil is, and most of us know what it feels like.

I couldn't shake off my feelings about what happened, so I called a friend who could articulate the realisty of what happened when I told him the story. Encountering evil with kindness is dangerous work. Evil is real, and if you choose to go in to evil territory, you will probably be threatened. And it's not just your comfort that is at risk, evil uses guns and bullets to stake its claim. Death is a real possibility.

So it is important to be aware of the choices I am making, and to communicate the reality of the places we go to serve lunch. It is also important to choose what battles to fight. Is it worth the risk of death to bring someone a lunch? Why? I don't pretend to have an easy answer to that question, because I don't think an easy answer exists. For me, it is about a belief in something that is sometimes hard to believe. I'm really forced to choose when I am confronted with the possibility that my life my be threatened. Because if I don't really believe it, I am better off to stay home. I believe kindness can change another person, or several people. I believe that kindness is the best tool to infiltrate evil territory. Opposing force can wipe it out or destroy it, but I believe that kindness can change it. When it comes down to it, it's good vs. evil, and I'm in the fight.

T-shirt design contest update

Entries continue to come in for the t-shirt design contest, but there is no clear winner. My friends Becca and Patti put their heads together to come up with this design:

If you think you can design a better t-shirt than this, the design deadline is April 15th. Good Luck!

New questions

The last few weeks, Free Lunch has operated like a machine. Volunteers show up, lunches are made, handed out, and we come home. We know where we are going, and we know what we are doing.

When I first started Free Lunch, I drove around downtown for a few months just trying to find the right place to go. During that time, I was thinking through all of the logistical problems I would have to solve like: How am I going to tell people about it? What kind of lunch am I going to make? How much should I budget? How will volunteers find out about it and sign up? Where will I hand out lunches? How will I hand out lunches? Who will I serve? Who else should I think about serving? Questions like that.

Recently a new question has surfaced, How effective are the methods used in accomplishing the purpose? If the purpose of Free Lunch is to form communities with invisible people, and inform people that pathways to these invisible people exist, then how do I measure success?

Jim Collins is the man. He wrote a book called Good to Great, a book that profiles businesses that went from good businesses to great businesses. He first defined good and great businesses, and made a few observations about why some companies make the leap. He also wrote a additional chapter, released in the form of a monograph, about how to apply the great company principles to the social sector. One of the challenging questions that came from that book was, How do you measure output from a social cause? Can I measure community? Can I measure the effectiveness of my efforts? What is the effect? Is the effect in line with my purpose? These questions are more difficult to answer.

Floyd McClung is also the man. I had a chance to hear Floyd speak last night and he shed some light on answering these new questions. He made the point that a person's core values will determine how they interpret input and ultimately dictate how they choose to act. Floyd McClung has done some incredible work in his lifetime. He is unprecedented...sort of. He doesn't have a lot of precedence. Most of us live life similar to how the people around us live life. That isn't a bad thing, we are very lucky to have well developed methods for getting an education, getting a job, living accommodations are plentiful and comfortable. This is one reason why America rocks, we have a great country with lots of good role models that have preceded us, showed us what they did right, and what we can do better.

I don't know Floyd very well, but it seems to me that he had the energy and ideas to carve his own path. AND he has been effective in what he is doing. So when he says that a persons core values influence what they choose to do, I am going to start asking that question. What does Free Lunch value? What do I value? I don't answer that question by what I am saying, but by my track record.

I am going to be honest and tell you that I value having fun, and running a machine. I like how smoothly Free Lunch runs every time. I like the system. I like how everything is timed and it happens on time or just a little bit ahead of schedule. I don't think those are bad things to value and enjoy, but they are secondary.

So I will continue to ask more questions and get better at doing what Free Lunch is all about.

Now, since I do enjoy the systems part of it, I will share with you a few statistics:

First Free Lunch: 16 September, 2006
Number of lunches served to date: 350
Average Cost of Lunch: $3.16
Number of volunteers who have contributed: 23
Approximate number of volunteer hours served: 190
Fastest grocery store run: 12 minutes
Percentage of lunches paid for by donors (unsolicited, they gave out of their own generosity!): 65%
A lunch includes:

• 1 ham or turkey sandwich in a sandwich bag ($1.17)
• 1 chocolate pudding snack pack ($0.27)
• 1 apple ($0.45)
• 1 banana ($0.20)
• 2 granola bars ($0.50)
• 1 spoon ($0.03)
• 1 napkin ($0.01)
• 1 bottle of water ($0.16)
• 1 capri sun (woo! juicy!) ($0.23)
• 1 brown bag ($0.02)
• the man ($0.23)
• 1 smile (priceless)

Isn't it fun to keep track of all the stats? I love that part.

Warmer Weather

The weather was a little bit warmer this weekend and more people were outside walking around. The last few weeks it has been pretty freaking cold outside. A taste of warmer weather and sunshine brought anticipation for springtime.

The last few weeks we have got our foot in the door at the hispanic community center on the west side. Typically when I pull up, people pour out the doors and flock to the car to pick up a lunch and go back inside to eat. This week I really wanted to bring the lunch all the way inside and hang out with them for a little while. When I pulled up, we all grabbed the food and started inside. It was all smiles as usual when we started handing out lunches. I felt comfortable and welcomed being inside, which was a relief because I was a little nervous about how it would be once I was on their turf. They seemed to be comfortable, we communicated as much as we could to eachother, and then we took off.

I feel like we made a big step this weekend. We are on the inside. It has been slow going building a relationship with anyone and it feels good to see something forming there.

There are always a lot of people walking around on the east side. As the weather gets warmer there are even more. I don't exactly know how I am going to form relationships with anyone up there, because I don't see the same people very often. I became curious about a small group of people standing outside what looked like a small abandoned building. They didn't appear to be the most welcoming people, but when I talked to them they were nice and appreciated the lunch. I am going to try and see what they are all about. I don't think I will make any efforts to go inside their building though...it looks like dangerous territory.

Woo! Juicy!

We just finished handing out lunches a few hours ago, and I couldn't wait to write about it. The word that best describes my experience this Saturday is 'juicy'.

First, we stopped by the Latino community center, and everyone there was happy to see us again. We always get such a warm response when we go there. The people that hang out there are so happy when we pull up. I went inside for just a minute and made sure that everyone got some food, and I really felt welcomed when I stepped inside. I think that is really rare. A white boy stepping in to a different culture, and getting nothing but smiles and greetings. It just feels good to serve there. Most of the guys don't speak English, so communication is pretty limited, but dang, I really like that place.

We took two cars again because we had too many volunteers for one car, which I think is a great problem. I really like the people that were helping, so it is fun to serve with friends. I have been working pretty hard to tell people about Free Lunch, and to get everything set up, and I was surprised at how much joy is packed in all the work. We just laughed most of the time. We met funny people as we were heading over to the east side. There were a few creepy people too, but people were funny today.

I was driving down a road and saw a guy walking that looked like he could use a lunch, and we rolled down the window and handed him a lunch. We also give out a water and a capri sun with every lunch. People love the capri sun. It reminds me of elementary school cafeteria, and it usually makes people smile when I give them one, I think it is an unexpected surprise.
When I handed this guy his capri sun, he let out an emphatic, 'Woo! Juicy!' He laughed and we all laughed. And we continued to laugh about it the rest of the car ride. I would not have experienced that if I had been at home fixing lunch by myself, and I would like to think that he would not have been able to joke around with someone if I had not pulled up. Free Lunch changed my afternoon. I just really enjoyed it.

Free Lunch is also currently accepting designs for the first annual t-shirt design contest. Submissions are due by April 15th, and shirts will be available in the summer.

T-Shirt Design Contest

Free Lunch is hosting its first annual t-shirt design contest. Submit your design by email in jpeg format by April 15th, 2007. T-shirts will be available to purchase this summer.

The winning design gets a free t-shirt and publicity on the site and some other prize that I haven't figured out yet.

If you have questions, my email address is jasoncarrigan@gmail.com

A design review board will pick the best design. All proceeds go towards free lunch.

No Hablo Espanol

One of my regular stops is a latino community center on the southwest side of the city. It is one of those places where you can pick up a truckload of day laborers if you can pay in cash. When I serve lunch there, everyone is very appreciative, but I can't communicate with them because the ones I talked to didn't speak english, and yo no hablo espanol. I usually just smile.

This week I took some friends with me that know spanish, so when we pulled up, Kurt asked the dude out front if they wanted lunch and if there were more people inside that wanted lunch too. We ended up staying for about 30 minutes. Kurt and Emily went inside (they are both fluent) and met a bunch of the guys. I waited outside with Santos. Santos told me about his 8 boys and 1 daughter (and 2 wives). I hardly had to say a word, Santos had a lot to talk about.

I was curious to know the story on the community center. The area is heavily populated with latinos, and before the community center, they all hung out at a local liquor store. That started causing a lot of trouble for the community, so someone built the community center (I think there are some apartments above it), and people wait there to be picked up for day labor. Santos said that it helped to clean up the neighborhood.

I have worked with the latino community several times on different projects, and I always go away feeling thanked and appreciated. It is different from the feeling I get when I leave the east side location. Up there when I leave, I feel glad just to be alive. I don't know what the difference is, the circumstances are about the same, there is just so little hope on the east side. I think that is what keeps me going back. It doesn't matter how much money anyone has, if someone loses hope, they are in a bad spot. Nothing is good.

I want to be able to offer what little hope there is in knowing that there is a meal coming on Saturday. I don't know if that makes a big difference in someone's life, but from what I have observed so far, it makes some kind of difference in their day. And that is good enough for me.

On a side note, I handed out more lunches, and had more volunteers this week than I have ever had before. That was fun.

New Years Eve Eve

I served lunch on the 30th. It was raining that day, and there were a lot of people walking around. Sometimes it is really hard to find people and sometimes it is really easy. I went to the east side and met some more scary drug dealers, but it was pretty uneventful. I went to the southwest side and met up with my Mexican friends. There is a pretty severe language barrier with those folks. I don't really know spanish, so I have to get out of the car and show them I have lunch for them. When the first one gets served, they all come running out of the building and I never have enough lunches. I would really like to get to know those folks. I don't know anything about why they congregate there.

The first guy I served that day was pretty funny. I was driving up towards the east side, and I saw a guy walking across a bridge. When I offered him lunch, he smiled and laughed and said, 'now I don't have to go to church!'

Most of you that read this blog know that I do go to church, so I was a little alarmed by his response. Did I just make a mistake? Did I take someone away from church? I came to the conclusion that I brought a little bit of church to him. serving lunch = church. It's really that simple.

I hope you all had a great holiday season. Have a great 2007!

Tis the Season

The Winter Months

It is a little unexpected that the winter months make it harder to find people to give out lunches. It makes sense though, when it is cold, people stay inside. This past Saturday was unusually warm outside, so there were lots of people out and about. The turf war was on again, although this time it was with the forces of good instead of the forces of drug dealers. There was another group serving lunch at my turf on the east side. They had a pretty sweet set up too. They brought tables and it looked like they had hot food to serve. Most of the folks that were walking around got their lunch from my competition.

There was an article in The Pitch, a weekly Kansas City publication, where they interviewed a few homeless folks around town. Most of the people had some wisdom to offer about what it takes to live on the street. One guy said it is a constant turf war. You have to claim your spot and daily let others know it is yours. You can't afford to let another person stake a claim on prime real estate because the take will be diluted. Most of the guys had well developed strategies for bringing in tax free money.

The interviewer didn't include anything in the article about why the people were homeless, and if it was a choice, or if they have just fallen on hard times. I wonder...

This Saturday I took two friends with me, Jessica and Julie. I was a little concerned taking two girls with me, in light of what happened last week. I think that we have the forces of good working for us though, so we were once again safe.

I saw something I have never seen before. We were driving around the east side of town, and I saw a rough looking dude walking behind a building. When I pulled up, he was searching through a dumpster apparently looking for food. I gave him a lunch and drove away and that image stuck with me.

I think I am a little naive when it comes to understanding the reality of life on the street. The article in the pitch highlighted people who seemed to be relatively healthy, and made a pretty good living for themselves. I think it was a rose colored view of the homeless community. This guy was looking through the trash for food. And that is his life. I don't know where he had come from, or where he was headed, but he was looking through the trash for food. I have never had to look through the trash for food. I have no idea what this guy has to do to survive on a daily basis. I complain when my roommate accidentally erases an episode of The Office from our TiVo before I get a chance to watch it. This guy does his grocery shopping at Deffenbaugh.

Being exposed to the reality of the life of a homeless person has created more compassion in me for people who don't have much. I have to admit that when I started this little adventure, I was more passionate about building a nonprofit organization, the business of charity. It is a pleasant surprise that this is changing me. Certainly not something I planned for.

Turf war

It snowed here a few days ago and today it was still pretty cold. As I pulled up to the east side location, for the first time there was no one on the sidewalk. I ran in to one lady and she told me the people were all scattered because it was cold out and I would have to drive around to find people. I told her about what we were doing, and she told me she would help "drum up some business", so she just started yelling at a few guys who were walking a block away. One of them came over and I was talking to him for a few minutes. He was clearly troubled in some way, or on crack, and his conversation didn't make much sense. When he started getting upset, I told him to have a nice day then I turned around and got back to my car as he started yelling louder and louder. I have mentioned before that this is not really the safest part of town.

When I got back in my car, another car sped up from behind and pulled along side me. I rolled down my window but the guy and girl in the car just stared at me without rolling down their window. I asked them if they had lunch yet, and offered them both something to eat. I was a little scared because I knew I was on his turf, and I was also sure that he had more guns in the car than I did (I don't carry a gun). The tension broke, the girl laughed, the guy smiled, they rolled down their window, and told me they had already had lunch.

I have been scared before, and I was certainly scared then, but thinking back, it is freaking amazing that when I offered him a lunch, everything was cool. We were just two people. He was not a drug dealer protecting his turf, and I was not a scared white boy. We were equal for that akward moment when our lives intersected. I don't get it, food is magic peace potion. The tagline (the one in the banner at the top of the page) became true today.

In other news, I found a new community to get to know, and that is why I have started asking for help. I need more poeple who believe in this vision to step up and get started. SO, I have a favor to ask you...please tell others about the website. Put a link on your page. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell them I need help. Tell them they don't need to raise their own money. I just need their time. I will help them get started and get comfortable. Unfortunately, I can't issue guns to any volunteers, Free Lunch policy states that you must serve lunch at your own risk.

Help!

Here's how:

I need help each week making and handing out lunches. The typical schedule goes something like this:

10:30-11:00 - go to the grocery store and buy food
11:00-11:45 - make lunches
11:45-12:00 - drive downtown
12:00-1:15 - deliver lunches and talk to people
1:15-1:30 - drive back to the house

If you are interested in helping, send an email to the following address:
freelunchvolunteers@gmail.com