Food For the Homeless

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 Food has been one of the most important issues that humans face ever. We need proper food and water for our survival. When people are homeless, they struggle to be able to get enough food or clean water to survive. The current issue that we are seeing is people standing on street corners or outside restaurants with signs asking for food. This is humiliating for those individuals, and they are depending on others to be kind enough to help them. This ends up with a large stigma around helping the less fortunate and people assume that they are lying and trying to get money out of them. 

There are a couple solutions that have been helpful. The first one is food banks. There are many different organizations that offer people to come and get a warm meal with no questions asked. They are able to provide these meals through donations and funding from the government. Oregon is a state that has more funding because of our government. We get more than say other states and we also have a higher population of people dealing with homelessness than other states. 

The second solution that I have seen is this app called Too Good to Go. It is essentially an app for businesses in your area that have extra food at the end of the night. Places like bakeries or even big stores like Whole Foods, have to sell their items by the end of the day and if they do not, they have to throw it out. This is an alternative to throwing the food out, instead people are able to place a pickup order through the app for a marked down price and get a bag of items that they would have thrown out. This reduces waste and people are able to get a lot of food for only a couple of dollars. This can help in two ways; it reduces food waste and also people who are needing to stretch their money are able to. The app also partners with companies to provide leftovers to the homeless. 

There are still some major barriers in any of these solutions. The Too Good to Go app requires the use of a smartphone which can be difficult for many people experiencing homelessness to get. Each solution isn’t perfect, but I think the effort towards helping our community is what counts. The most important tool that we all need is compassion and understanding. We are all humans at the end of the day who deserve the necessities to live and if any of us have extra, we should be helping out the people who don’t. 

If you feel inclined, here is the Too Good to Go app and a link to a food pantry that I have personally volunteered for hundreds of times. 

About Us - More Information | Too Good To Go – Too Good To Go 

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