Dollar-store food for the homeless - good or bad?

Downtown, there are many homeless people. Sometimes if I go to a dollar store downtown, I’ll buy some food there and give it to nearby homeless people.

Considering that the quality of dollar-store food may not be as good as food elsewhere, is it a bad thing to give dollar-store food to the homeless? Or is it good that the homeless people are getting any food at all?

Homeless people can and often do receive food stamps. They also usually know where all the free soup kitchens are. While I’m sure they appriciate food you might consider other items they’d appreciate. For example: socks, toothbrush/toothpaste, deodorant, soap, hand cream, lip balm, gloves, hats…

In fact, you might ask them: “Hey, I’m going into the dollar store, is there something I can pick up for you while I’m there? Can only spare X bucks, what do you need?” They might still ask for food, but at least your chances of giving them what they really need at that moment will be increased.

They have access to lots of food, trust me. But soft, easy to chew, pre-packaged food that doesn’t have to be cooked isn’t a bad idea.

If you really want to make them happy- socks. They never get enough socks.

Socks, toilet paper, tampons/pads, deodorant, toothpaste, denture cream, hand sanitizer, pet food.

Master has given Dobby a sock. Dobby is free!

I always had the idea that McDonalds gift certificates are a good thing to give away. It’s cheap food, but it also gives them the right to hang out at a warm clean-ish McDonalds for an hour or two.

Fuck that. Nobody wants stank-ass bums hanging around in an otherwise clean-ish restaurant where people may bring families, and otherwise bathed, non-reeking people aren’t usually at.

Yep, I agree, and even for the homeless the food is crap.

Pet food?

A lot of homeless people have dogs and the dogs need to eat too. The homeless know how and where to get food, no one is starving to death. The ones asking you for food really just want money.

Not covered by food stamps. One of the more common reasons for actual hunger in the homeless is that they feed their food to their dog. Which isn’t particularly good for the dog, either.

And while I’m sure the howls of outrage about smelly homeless people daring to keep their pets will now commence…let me just remind people that most homeless people are employed or recently employed people who are homeless for less than two months, due to temporary financial and/or medical stress, and animal shelters are more crowded than people shelters. You put your kids’ dog in a shelter and you’re very unlikely to ever see him again, which can be devastating during a time that’s already putting your kid at risk for educational and behavioral problems. And many of the chronically homeless are physically and/or mentally ill or disabled, and their dogs are de facto therapy dogs and security systems.

They are still far less disgusting than you, if you have that attitude.

Please save your money and donate it to where it will have the most impact - service providers. Here’s an article in our local paper highlighting the hidden costs of enabling the homeless with food handouts. Not only will service providers be better able to maximize your donated money by aquiring food via food banks and other sources, but they have a far better chance of knowing whether the local homeless are more in need of resources other than food - and can provide those resources. There’s not a lot of cans of Drug Rehabilitation or Employment Training that you can pick up at the local Dollar General, but somehow the support organizations around here are able to provide it.

Wet wipes or diaper wipes are good.

I often buy food for myself at the dollar store. You see lots of regular brands there, plus some unusual European stuff like cookies and crackers. IOW I don’t think the groceries at the dollar store are any worse, poorer quality, or junkier than what you find at the regular supermarket.

Having said that, here’s the thing. You know… I’ve worked for non-profits for over 30 years raising money. Agencies are great, and I’ve worked for at least three in the past 20 years whose mission was working with the homeless, providing emergency food and shelter, etcblahblahblah.

AND if you want to give money or food to a homeless person, then, for Pete’s sake, follow your heart and do it. Agencies and churches do great work and they are totally necessary and indispensable. But if YOU are personally moved to hand cash or a McDonald’s certificate or a loaf of bread to a homeless person who is standing right in front of you, then don’t overthink: just do it.

I often give money to panhandlers, having gone through some VERY tough financial times myself, and I don’t care what anybody says, trying to get strangers to give you money is a dismal way to spend the day and no one does it by choice. It’s not my job to vet the people asking me for money. I react from my gut and if my gut says, “Hand this guy five or twenty bucks,” I do it. I don’t care what s/he does with the money. That’s not my problem. This practice will NOT likely catch on among the middle or upper classes or start a massive tidal wave of entitlement that causes the so-called “working poor” to quit their jobs and take to the streetcorners with cardboard signs and fake casts on their legs.

I do it because I’m financially okay now and I remember when I wasn’t. I also give (proportionately) a lot to regular charities and agencies, too. But it’s not up to me to tell a homeless person how THEY should be dealing with the stress and misery of wondering where their next meal is coming from. If I can ease that worry for an hour, I do it.

When I hand money to a panhandler, I almost always say, “May I ask you for something?” And when they say, “What?” I say, “Will you pray for me?” At that point the person makes eye contact with me and asks me my name, which I tell them. Every one of them says they will absolutely pray for me. No one has EVER turned down this request. I feel that making this request puts us on more of an equal footing instead of me reaching down from on high like Lady Bountiful. And God knows, I can use all the prayers I can get.

One time, a tall, regal black man dressed in the shabbiest imaginable clothes stopped right then and there on the sidewalk, put his hand on my shoulder, raised his face to heaven, and invoked blessings on me so sincerely, eloquently, and passionately (and for several minutes) that the memory of it, even now, years later, brings tears to my eyes.

Friends, that could be any one of us on that street corner. Follow your heart. Give food if you want to.

In downtown Dallas you can’t walk five feet with out somebody asking you for some spare change. I don’t normally carry cash on me but when it’s convenient, I’ll stop by the McDonald’s off of main street and buy a bag of of $! cheese burgers.

They’re usually gone before I can even walk two blocks. I’m not doing that shit any more though. Last time I did it I managed to get a passel of homeless people surrounding me wanting their cheeseburger. Problem was I didn’t have enough to go around. People started getting pissy with each other. Like SCARY pissy. Thankfully, their outrage was not directed at me but it could very easily have been.

People have confused this poster and me before. I preemptively remind the SDMB that I am not bump.

I have much more friendly advice: what the homeless really want are homes. They could really use homes.

Friends, one time while walking to the train, one lady in our group gave some decent looking homeless dude a fiver. He was very happy and she thought she had “done the right thing”.

Next day, he wanted another fiver, but she (having no small bills at the ready) said “sorry”. He followed her for two blocks cursing & screaming at her and making the nastiest threats.

She now will only walk if we’re all going together. She had nitemares for weeks.

Ignore your heart. Follow your brain. It’s the thinking organ, that other organ just pumps blood.

Donate your money and/or time to a group or org that* really *helps those in need.

Just because food is sold in a dollar store doesn’t mean there’s necessarily anything “wrong” with it. Some of the food items they sell there are just fine, some aren’t, and some I may never know because I’m not motivated to try them.

My own rule of thumb is, I’d have no qualms about donating (whether to a homeless person on the street, or a canned food drive for the hungry, or whatever) anything that I myself would be willing to eat/use. And I myself am not particularly picky, and have been through times when I had to make my money go as far as possible.

You know, a large portion of my career has been dedicated to raising money for homeless agencies. It’s been dedicated to finding solutions to the problems of homelessness, and finding ways to prevent it from happening. The one thing every agency I’ve worked with agrees with is that handouts to homeless a) don’t solve homelessness, b) don’t alleviate the immediate suffering of homeless, c) divert attention from actions and agencies that actually **do **those things and d) enable more than they help.

Give all the food you want - it’s your money. But it’s entirely counterproductive, can be hazardous to the health of the person you’re trying to help, and shows a pretty high level of self-centeredness. At the very least, pick up a few rat traps to hand out as well - they’re going to need it (if they’re even homeless in the first place).