Helping the Homeless (Long and not sure if it's OT since food is involved)

[shpj4]

Thanks for your story - it really makes me grateful for what I have.

 

[luvs]

kads, i said i wasn't posting to said forum, yet i'm rescinding. your post was quite appreciated. & fraidy, to clarify, those meals that we give usually tend to be quite gourmet- my school is a certified classical French school. our meals, they're rather fancy.
-luvs

 

[GB]

We're all adults here.

This is actually not true at all. There are quite a few children who frequent this site and we do need to keep that in mind when posting.

 

[FraidKnot]

This is actually not true at all. There are quite a few children who frequent this site and we do need to keep that in mind when posting.

I try to watch my language but I'm not sure what you're referring to. Are you suggesting they shouldn't know that there are homeless people? Or that sometimes folks donate food and/or clothing to help them out?

I can tell you this: it doesn't help to shield children from the realities of the world. Fairy tales don't exist.

I'm a military brat. When I was 9 years old, we were in San Francisco waiting to be flown by the military to Bangkok, Thailand. The Marines put us up in a hotel and we were walking down the street to find a Chinese restaurant at Dad's insistence. I recall very vividly seeing a WINO (much like Steve would have been) slumped in a doorway with a bottle of some kind in his hand. And I said to my mother, "Hey, Mom, that could be Daddy!" Out of the mouths of babes, eh? But it was true. The only difference with this guy was he didn't drink at the Officers Club on a military base.

Children are not unaware of what is going on. Nor, in my opinion, should they be sheltered. Sheltering leads to rebelliousness and problems. I was only 3 years old when John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963 but I sure as heck knew something serious had happened. My mother was crying in front of the television and I went to comfort her. She didn't try to hide this thing from me.

Two years after we got to Bangkok my middle brother (older only by 3 years) was kicked out of the only International School (ISB) because he was caught buying heroin. Never occurred to my parents to hide this from me (I was 10). We had to detox him and he and Mom and I vacated the country while my father stayed for his tour and my oldest brother graduated high school.

Oh, and it also never occurred to my mom to hide the fact from me that when I was 7 years old my father was shot while serving in Vietnam.

Shielding children from real life is a bad idea, period. But then again, unless they love to cook I'm not sure why kids would even read Discuss Cooking.

Fraidy <--Jill <--learned to cook rice for breakfast in Bangkok in 1969 and still love it for breakfast sometimes, butter and salt

 

[FraidKnot]

fraidy, to clarify, those meals that we give usually tend to be quite gourmet- my school is a certified classical French school. our meals, they're rather fancy.
-luvs

I'm sure you wouldn't begrudge anyone those nice meals since you are, after all, in a school, learning

Fraidy

 

[GB]

Fraidy, I was simply replying to suzyQ3 who said

We're all adults here.

I was just pointing out that we are NOT all adults here and we need to keep that in mind. Please do not read anything more into my statement. I am not saying anything about kids in relation to homeless people or anything else for that matter. I was just correcting and incorrect statement.

 

[GB]

unless they love to cook I'm not sure why kids would even read Discuss Cooking.

It is unimportant why they would be here. It is just important that they are.

 

[luvs]

I'm sure you wouldn't begrudge anyone those nice meals since you are, after all, in a school, learning

Fraidy

yep, i'm learning, & quite lovingly. sooooo..... adore my instructors. learning is a process that continues throughout your days..... & i appreciate that. learning is excellent. those who don't appreciate learning, well.....
that's thier item to contend with.....
luv my schooling.

 

[suzyQ3]

It is unimportant why they would be here. It is just important that they are.

GB, just to clarify my statement that we are all adults here. You've mentioned children before as a reason for some of DC's policies. While I have a sneaking suspicion that not too many kids log on and read our threads, I'll accept that the site is available to them.

But I was speaking of the posters here when I said that we are all adults. It was less a literal reminder than a figurative one regarding how we conduct ourselves in our conversations with each other. I'm sure you would agree that it should be with maturity -- like adults -- despite the fact that an occasional visitor might be younger than 18 years old.

Adults, IMO, should welcome the challenge of different points of view, as long as they are offered with respect and don't violate any laws or site rules. And certainly, if one chooses to post a comment with a particular opinion, then that person should know that others may want to offer theirs in reply. Isn't that really the best way to learn?

 

[GB]

suzy3, I was just correcting an incorrect statement as I have said before. Regardless of what you intended, others could read your statement take take away from it that there are no children here. I wanted to make it perfectly clear that that is not the case.

As to your sneaking suspicion, I can assure you that you are dead wrong (see this thread as just one example). Even if you were right though, but just one child read the posts here then that would be enough.

This thread has gone off topic long enough now. We need to get back to discussing the topic at hand. If anyone would like to continue discussing children at this site or any other topics other than that of the original post in this thread then it will need to go to PM's or start a new thread.

 

[Constance]

While we live in the country, we are only two blocks from a shopping complex and 3 blocks from the interstate. At the intersection where you turn down our lane, there's a parking lot for big rigs on one side of the road, and a McDonalds and a filling station on the other side. We used to see panhandlers there quite frequently, but now the police run them off.
This is a small community, but our ministerial alliance supports a food pantry for those in need. One of the local churches also maintains a clothing depository, where all the donated clothing is washed, ironed, sized and hung on racks. They have warm coats, shoes and other necessities for free. Occasionally a family that's traveling will have a breakdown on the road, and no money, in which case the food pantry will provide meal vouchers, diapers and a motel room.
There is no need for anyone to go hungry here.

 

[expatgirl]

I worked at a food kitchen that was maintained and received donations from our church. We also received food from the local food bank. Sister Maria Elena welcomed anyone who was willing to work to help serve 300-400 people a day--5 days a week. YOu can't imagine what goes into an operation like that. Most of our people who came through were really down on their luck and for some this was their only meal of the day much less a hot meal at that. YOu can't imagine the number of single moms with young children. Yes, by appearances some of our regulars didn't look like they belonged in that line and Sister Mary Elena did speak to them about the need to find jobs but overall, we helped many people who really needed it.