Feeding the Homeless

Over the course of this experiment I hope to do many different altruistic acts. I may not report every day, but I do plan on reporting the more interesting ones (I may actually report more of the minor details at my personal blog). At first it seemed very difficult to figure out what to do. However, the more I look around the more I see many things that could be done.

My main act of compassion so far has been feeding people who are homeless. It has been my mainstay act of altruism. There are relatively many people who are homeless near me and I can do this pretty anonymously. That is, I can "sneak up" on them and give them a bag of food pretty quickly without getting praise or really even being identified (I often find people who are sleeping).

One unexpected outcome of this endeavor is that I have been rejected a few times. Luckily (at least for my ego), the people who have rejected my offerings have never accepted it previously. It actually makes quite a bit of sense in that I am not sure I would trust some random stranger handing me food. People who are homeless actually face a multitude of crimes and hate-victimization (about three years ago there were a string of beatings to people who are homeless). Thus, I think I would be quite reluctant taking food from a stranger.

Probably my favorite rejection was when someone went through the bag asking what I had brought. When he decided he didn't like the food he told me he didn't want it. This interaction actually led me to think why would I expect everyone to be gracious about what I bring. People always have a choice. Thus, I have now modified my question from "Are you hungry, would you like some food" to "Are you hungry, I brought spaghetti and some fruit."

The first time I attempted to bring food to people who are homeless, it took me about 45 minutes to find a homeless person. I thought that this endeavor was going to be difficult to complete on a daily basis. Then I found the place where many people without homes congregated. Unfortunately at that time, I had only one bag of food left. I did go home and brought some more food, but it led me to feel a bit of guilt in that I can't possibly feed everyone who is homeless in my area. I still struggle with this when I go to this area. I bring only a limited amount of food so I do feel a bit guilty leaving some people without food.