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Burrito Project
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In over 24 communities nationwide, the Burrito Project is sending a new message: All you need to help the poor are tortillas and beans, friends on bikes and about an hour of your time.
Burrito Project’s MySpace page says the project is “an idea, a tool for groups of friends to become active participants in their communities.” Started in Los Angeles in January 2006, the Burrito Project’s only “basic guidelines” is that groups must remain “non religious, non political and non fame.” The project received the first of MySpace’s Impact Awards for Povery Relief last year.
Because the project emphasizes anonymous service, Los Angeles member Will C. asked to be identified by his first name only. He said the group typically gathers at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Beans and rice are on the stove; as they finish cooking, a couple members quickly assemble about 30 burritos. They all take off on bikes to “places that the more seasoned Burrito Project folk (know are) places where the homeless could be found: the parking lot of a Big Lots discount store . . . under freeway overpasses” to hand out the burritos on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Will said the group, though diverse in age, race and occupation, is united by the members’ “desire and willingness to help,” as well as their enjoyment of bike riding. He got involved through another social bike event, and now he hopes to start his own project in his area of LA.
Will acknowledged that the impact of handing out a few burritos may not mean much “in the big scheme of things,” but “in regards to reaching out on an individual level the difference is huge.” While some people refused the free food, most accepted it gratefully, “more than just for the nourishment but also for the realization that there are people in this city that haven’t forgotten them — and don’t have an agenda in helping them.”
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The race for No. 2
A church I know attempted something similar. It was CUTB (for Church Under the Bridge). The local health dept put the quietus on the entire shebang. They said health regs said you had to have a food handler’s permit. The entire bruha reminded me of the pharisees who criticized the Lord for working miracles on the sabbath.
I have for many years kept left-over MREs from field training exercises. During an FTX you can ordinarily get enough calories for an entire day from one MRE. So whenever I’d see panhandlers or other vagrants standing on street corners I’d give them the Meal Ready to Eat (or Meal Rejected by Ethiopians, according to some troops)
This project depends on the notion that the folks under the bridge actually want a burrito.
The homeless I worked with over the years have largely wanted alcohol or drugs. Some are simply crazy, whether because of prolonged abuse of alcohol and drugs or not, I can’t tell.
Some may be grateful for a burrito. I don’t oppose giving them one, and I think it’s insane to require food handling permits for give away food.
I just would like to point out that most of us imagine the homeless are “just like us,” but most of us would be interested in food, clean water, toilets, safe shelter, job opportunities - the many bums I have known just want to get high, or else they are so insane they are (almost) beyond help.
I heard a mental health man who worked at the state hospital. He spoke of MICAs and CAMI, ie some who are mentally ill with chemical addiction while others have a chemical addiction with mental illness.
I recall a homeless woman who was defended by the ACLU when NY Mayor Koch’s police tried having her brought to a mental hospital. She was feted and celebrated and even got coverage on 60 Minutes. But one day everyone left her alone and she went back to sitting in her own waste mumbling aloud.
But one day everyone left her alone and she went back to sitting in her own waste mumbling aloud.
You don’t happen to know what screen name she’s using on WoW, do you?
My impression, from what I have read, as well as volunteering in a homeless shelter, is that there is a difference between the long-term homeless and those for whom it is a short-term problem. At any given time, a large percentage (I think most but I’m not positive) of the “homeless” are in fact people much like the rest of us, who are currently homeless due to some crisis in their lives - often a series of crises, so that the usual “last resort” fixes have been exhausted. Medical problems combined with job loss, savings used up and no way to pay the rent - you’re out on the street. But with help from a homeless shelter, a start in another job, and those people get back on their feet.
The long-term homeless, on the other hand, do tend to be the mentally ill. And some of them really do prefer the freedom to live that way.
nice post pauline…yes, there are many situational homeless out there, and not just “bums” as we like to assign and thus comfort ourselves so as to not become restless in our warm beds.
look at the number of comments on this subject as opposed to the evolution/creation debate…i think we got our priorities askew. isn’t Jesus among the homeless?