A co-worker relayed to me, her disheartening experience while volunteering at a men's soup kitchen. She had prepared a chicken salad, a family favorite, and was charged with serving it. It wasn't the hit she anticipated. Many men asked what it was, and then declined. Her chicken salad was made with grapes, spinach, mandarin oranges, green onions, raisins, cheese raviolis, and peas with a mayonnaise-type dressing. My experience is that homeless men prefer simple, substantial fare, like meat, potatoes or rice, and thick meat sandwiches with lettuce and tomato. She thought the men were ungrateful for her generosity. I think she overlooked that the homeless, like other people, have their own opinions on what makes food a enjoyable. Food is one of the few pleasures for a homeless man.
My coworker is not that different from me; we are both learning to understand homeless people.
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so what
You're very rude. What was the point of commenting that?
Yes it was a bit fancy but it was a change that many of the homeless may not get. I don't think that a hungary man would have really wanted to decline her.
I think that's what my co-worker was thinking.. she wanted to make something that the homeless men didn't have everyday.
The Sky is Falling, Recreate it for a Better Day
Well the homeless and hungry, and I guess want "food that will fill them up" They were not being rude, they just didn't like how it looked. I would not eat something If I didn't like how it looked, would you?
I agree.
The Sky is Falling, Recreate it for a Better Day
I appreciate comments because everyone sees things differently.
I blogged aobut the incident because I thought it was interesting that the men are in a position to turn nothing down, yet they turned the salad down.
I wonder what I'd do if homeless. Would I eat manicotti? I hate ricotta cheese!
The Sky is Falling, Recreate it for a Better Day
I watched an interesting video yesterday in Sociology class. A man who worked at a food pantry said that they were always out of white bread, but they couldn't give away the healthy, expensive multi-grain bread. I fail to understand this. I've been that poor, and when we went to a food pantry, we took the good stuff, because it was free. When we were on food stamps, we ate as healthy as we could afford to. Instead of buying chips and pop, we bought wheat bread and skim milk, fruit juice and granola bars. When we had to buy our clothes at Goodwill, we still went for the Levi's and other good brands that we knew would last, rather than buying the cheesy brands that fall apart.