I don’t get it

I semi-routinely get food for beggars. Gift cards, even. I don’t carry cash, but if someone says they’re trying to get enough money for food, I offer to just buy them what they need. They almost always say yes, and, especially in winter, you can tell it means a lot, at least in the moment.

On my first payday, post graduation, I did this for some kid who seemed clean by really skinny. He picked out frozen chicken nuggets, and seemed just so happy and grateful. That’s stuck with me.

There was a guy outside of Taco Bell in Columbus Ohio who was begging for money so he could get himself a burrito.
So I went inside and bought the man several burritos and soft tacos and a large drink. I walked back out and handed it to him, and he promptly threw it straight in the trash and looked in the eye and reminded me that he had asked for money.

In my city the homeless run a newspaper. Good on-the-street reporting and homeless people can also sell the paper to get money.

Anyways, got to talking to a paper-seller. His story was rough; had a job, a house… and then a major medical event that took his house and all of his savings away in bills. His job fired him for ‘poor attendance’. At least the people at the paper were helping him get back on his feet.

Bought his last few papers so he could go home, but figured he was probably cold and hungry after standing around all day, so I bought him dinner and some new warm socks too.

Hope that guy is doing all right.

Yes, I’ve painted bicycles a few times. The first one, a '90s rigid MTB I was building up to be my “daily driver” utility bike, I took the frame to be professionally powder coated, which obviously worked great. The second one, a tandem, I spray-painted myself, which also worked fine but I haven’t really ridden it so can’t speak to the durability over time. Most recently, I tried spraying a frame with plasti-dip because I wanted it to be removable, but it turned out a little too removable: it didn’t hold up to being clamped in my work stand, so now I’ve got to re-do that tube.

There was this dude, Tyler, at my local Skate park who got kicked out by his baby mama and was sleeping in the park, under shelter. I was chilling next to him when he got that phonecall from her. We’d bring homie a ton of taco bell tacos whenever we’d go to the skatepark, and offer him rides wherever he wanted.

Homie would complain when we got cheese in the tacos, demand rides, and get a lil violent about us skating too late. Dude became an asshole, maybe baby mama was right to kick him out.

I broke my foot and stopped showing up, hope homie’s alright

Sitting outside of a club waiting for friends. It’s late and a guy comes up and asks if I’m ok, if I need an ambulance or something. I must have looked rough. Dude saw that I was just on my phone and apologized before taking off, saying he was just making sure I wasn’t passing out or OD’ing

Not much later I’m walking to meet up with other friends for an after party and see the guy setting up on some cardboard.

I stop and ask him what his deal was, he wasn’t strung out like other homeless around. He told me his story. I said I was headed to Denny’s and would buy him dinner if he wanted.

When we got there he said thanks but he didn’t want to bother my gathering and was going to decline. So I hand him a few hundred bucks that was my party cash. He initially declined but I insisted, because he was humble, genuinely concerned about my drink add, and obviously was going to get himself out of his situation with only a little help and some luck.

I’ve interacted with a number of homeless and never really met another person like that since. I’m sure they are out there, teetering on really hard times.

A friend of mine packs backpacks full of blankets, toothbrushes, toothpaste, socks, etc. and goes around handing them to homeless people around Christmas.

I was sleeping rough first days in Amsterdam tired and hungry, when a guy I met who had not much himself invited me to his squatted building and offered me potato and onion soup and a glass of port, a place to crash for a couple of days. I will always remember that kindness.

Bit different but I used to cook for the homeless being homeless and later squatting myself for a long time.

In Amsterdam we had “Squat cafe’s” giving out vegetarian food for homeless people. We get the food from the street markets and cook up meals like pasta, bread and garlic butter, salad fruits and vegetables. Many market stalls throw a lot of food away and with some effort you can make a lot of people happy.

My wife and me (25 years later) bring food packets to the local charity program, last week we brought Christmas presents that they will give out next week. The project here is run by volunteers who collect food from the local supermarkets and distribute that to people in need that don’t meet the criteria to apply for the official food bank. There are no questions asked, you can take a certain amount of products and there is advice where to get further assistance or government support.

It is hard to see people waiting for 2 hours in front of the building to get some food. Gets me triggered but I feel we are doing something good for them, although it is limited by only donating instead of volunteering.

Years ago, I tried giving a homeless guy an unopened chicken sandwich I had just got from Burger King. I got two for the price of one, and I didn’t want to eat the other one because I was already pretty full.

So I walked out of the restaurant still holding it, thinking I should find a trash can for it. Then a homeless guy came up to me saying he was so hungry. So I thought “well this kills two birds with one stone!” and offered it to him.

He seemed very unhappy and asked if I had money instead. He took the sandwich begrudgingly. Hmmmmm, it was almost like he was lying about being hungry and actually wanted money to buy drugs or something.