Sunday, January 2, 2011
Tomorrow $55 will Feed 100 Homeless People
For Only 55¢ Per Hungry Person
By Cliff Harrison
If my health allows me, tomorrow I will service (the Lord) from 40 to 100 homeless people. My mission that is scheduled for tomorrow is not one of my normal feeding missions. Normally I carry a trunk full of fresh fruits, not the rotten stuff local “charities” and “homeless shelters” and soup kitchen push off on to the homeless where some businesses instead of throwing it in the garbage where it belongs donated it to a food bank or "charity" and then wrote off on their taxes the donation to charity.
No, my fruits are not rotten. They are fresh from the store and purchased right off the shelves and delivered within moments of my leaving the store. I pay a premium price but for a premium product—but I bargain shop—for the best possible price.
I don't give my people the garbage—long expired foods—local charities serve them. I refuse to, for I ate that garbage th
ey dump onto the homeless for years while I was homeless myself.When I make normal food runs that include fruits, I generally have an assortment of fresh apples, pears, oranges, Sweet Clementine’s, bananas and sometimes grapes, sometimes plums and other fruits I find on sale. Sometimes I carry sunflower seeds, peanuts and other food items I find on sale around town. I most generally feed from 40 to 100 hungry homeless persons at a time. I can get this sam
e delivery that I'm doing tomorrow for $55 in food as low as $41 or 41 cents per person.A Trunk Load of Fresh Fruits Only $50
I often have a trunk load of fresh, assorted fruits purchased for as little as $50 simply by smart shopping and bargain hunting. Buy on sale and save a
b
unch! Many of my friends that I have taught and encouraged have joined
the cause and independently service the Lord while servicing the homeless. They too deliver used clothes, blankets, socks, knit hats, gloves, personal care products, sandwiches, bottled water and most of all—prayers. The Direct-to-the-Streets needs list is here at Christian River: Direct-to-the-Streets NeedsWe do all that on a regular basis. Some of us are out there once a week, others several times a week.
But tomorrow I’m really making my delivery to deliver new boxer shorts, maybe new T-shirts and socks, if I don't feel like making several trips this week, and bottled water, apples, and snack chips. Many homeless folks either have no teeth or bad teeth, so I usually purchase fresh cut fruit when marked down one or two days before expiration, and bananas, oranges, grapes and softer fruits that they can eat.
When the homeless see my car sometimes they are hungry and think I’m bringing food. The last time I delivered complete personal care products, razors, shaving creme, shampoo, lotion, chap lipstick, toenail clippers, bath soap but a few were disappointed that I didn’t have food that trip. It wasn’t that they were rude. They were hungry and when they saw my car coming their bellies growled.
Food Banks Are Robbing the Poor
The big food banks in Las Vegas with quarter-of-a-million dollar salaried staff and the big charities never reach these people, the most needy because they sit behind their desks in a locked room with a fortress of security protecting them and scribble and doodle on paper all day long what they are going to do with their zillions of dollars. They might chat on their cell phones or play on their computers, but they never go out to see what is going on in their "charity".
The frontline servants are the forced labor, the slaves that were homeless yesterday and just recruited from the streets "rescued" and entered the "rehabilitation" programs and part of their earning their own keep is doing the labor the supervisor behind closed door should be doing.
The parking lots are not full of cheap Kias, and $400 motor scooters and bicycles and ten-year-old used clunkers like real volunteers doing real charity work drive, but the parking lots are lined with highline vehicles like Land Rovers, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Hummers and Escalades.
But that's them at the charities that the people of the communities think are doing such a good and colorful deed. The fruits of their labor are the velvet linings of their wallets.
Direct-to-the-Streets, The Only Way To Go!
Me? I drive around like all the other Direct-to-the-Street's volunteers, in a 13-year-old 120,000 mile car that I love. The windows don't work. The heater doesn't work. The air conditioner doesn't work. The "change oil soon" light comes on when I just changed the oil yesterday, and lots of things don't work or work too much on the old clunker that gets me around—but it sure beats taking Oscar Goodman's and Larry Brown's Black Panther Buses and taking the abuse from the RTC and DTC bus drivers, it sure does.
No, tomorrow, like the days before tomorrow, those times of my homelessness in Las Vegas under the fat pigs of Animal Farm do not stop me from returning to the streets to helping my poor brothers and sisters I left behind there. The real humanity in this world. The real down-to-earth folks who will give you the shirt off their backs, when they don't even have two dimes to rub together at once.
I don't ever want to repeat like last time and know my people were so hungry and when they saw my car coming their bellies growled.
Enough to Fed Over Half-a-Million People!
This time, I throw in $55 dollars of something for the hungry bellies of 100 homeless people. That way, they get their new boxer shorts they so sorely need, sizes small to XXXL and their food. Did I say $55 dollars for 100 people? Actually it could even be less that that! If I had $212,000 I could service nearly a half-million homeless persons the same foods. And if given time to really bargain, well over a half-million!
In addition to the boxer shorts and maybe the t-shirts and socks, gloves and hats, and hygiene supplies which I carry just in case the others who I’ve trained in the Christian River fashion and that do this on their own now hadn’t made their rounds of late, I’ll have them ready. They always come in handy especially when an unprepared newly homeless person finds him or herself landing on the streets.
I won’t get into the expense of the clothing items and stuff, but I always bargain hunt. I shop for the best prices and I use store fliers, the Internet and personal visits to local stores to locate the best products for the lowest cost. I’m a big customer of Wal-mart, K-Mart and the 99 cent only store. Albertsons I take advantage of the 10 for $10 sale and only buy a few items there since I would be boycotting them completely if I had a choice, and this store was my ONLY store for the first seven or eight years that I lived in Vegas, but we won’t get into that.
I do find things at Albertsons that I can't find in any other store, such as the Gillette 2oz. shaving creme and triple-blade razors shown in the photo in a couple of posts below at a reasonable price.
Bargain Hunt for the Best Deals!
That's the key in helping the homeless in the Christian River way. Every store has a special bargain that the other stores don't have. You invest time, yes, but once you learn your way around you know just where to go to quickly find the things you need. You establish a personal relationship with a contact at each store. You find out the little secrets you need to function.
The 99 Cents Only Stores for example will ship to the store of your choice cases of the products you need. You don't get a price break, but you get what you want in the quality and quantity you want, when you need it.
Here is what I will do tomorrow. I will go to Smart & Final store and pick up three cases of water in which they keep in the cooler for me (The only special attention any store does for me) and I’ll pick up some apples and chips that are on sale.
(Those tortilla chips on the left-hand side of the photo image next to the boxed 50 count snacks are only $3.79 regular price for a hug
e 4pound bag at Smart & Final. Break them down and put a handful or two inside sandwich bags and you serve 64 people 1oz servings for only $3.79 or only 6 cents each. If I were using them tomorrow instead of the chips and snacks it would only cost me 37 cents per homeless person, or $37 for 100 homeless people. Since I don't have the time for that this time, I'll pay the Piper.)
Corrupt, Aggressive & Hostile Public Officials
Gail Sacco has been feeding the homeless every week, often several times a week for years. She was arrested once for feeding the homeless, an action brought forth by the Nazi regime of Mayor Oscar Goodman and the corrupt Rory Reid. Reid and Goodman applied pressure against the people who were feeding the homeless or helping them in other ways.
The courts later ruled the arrest and charges as unconstitutional. But the City of Las Vegas and Clark County continues to perform unlawful acts against the homeless and poor citizens of Las Vegas and Clark County.
They also applied pressure to local charities, and so-called shelters. Catholic Charities which used to have outside lockers that stored street homeless possessions at a fee took those lockers out. That’s another subject for another day, the point is many good people were hurt by the corrupt public officials.
Life Changing Experience
Vegas advertises the world over for people to come here and gamble, for senior citizens to move here while offering “life changing experience” advertisement. It’s a life changing experience alright, if pushing a shopping cart while being homeless on the streets is your idea of a life changing experience, then yeah go for it. The very casinos that cause homelessness in Vegas do very little to eradicate homelessness.
All but one person missed the idea behind my first YouTube video, Vegas Snap Shots. "Snapshots" was purposely spelled wrong to signify that something was wrong in Vegas. The video was shot while I was homeless and the statement is the fact the city that has the most hotel rooms in the world also has the most homeless per capita. See the video Vegas Snap Shots @ YouTube and/or at Christian River I’ve since explained the video in Christian River and will update it on YouTube site soon, but nevertheless, people missed my point, and for that that is my own fault.
Smart & Final; A Good Place to Volume Purchase
Now for tomorrow, already called in and saved at the store (Smart & Final) and/or placed in a cooler for pick up tomorrow or the next day at the latest.
(See the photos for the actual items selected, all on sale.)
Chips 50 Ct for $11.49 x 2 = $22.98
100ct. @ $0.23 per individual item.
($22.98)
Crystal Geyser Water $4 ea for 35 ct.
3 cases x $4 = $12
for total of 105 individual item count ($12)
(Bottled Water 11 cents each.)
Red Delicious Apples 3# bags $1.99
3 bags with about 10 apples each = 30 apples total ($5.97 ) or
10 bags with about 10 apples each bag = 100 apple total ($19.90)
100 people are fed with an apple, a bag of snack chips and a bottle of pure water for $54.88 or 54 cents per person.
When I find these items on even better sales with a greater savings I can pay as little as $40.95 or 41 cents each.
Not only will I bring this food, plus I'm delivering new boxer shorts, new t-shirts, socks, and I always have on hand knit hats and gloves for any newly homeless persons as we have a stock of hygiene or personal care products. Now that's just tomorrow. $55 for 100 people. (Apples 20 cents each, chips 23 cents each and water 11 cents each.)
.23 + .11 + .20 = 54 cents each person or $54.88 for 100 people.
When I Hungered, You Fed Me. When I thirst, You Gave Me Something to Drink.
Again, this food isn't my normal food delivery, this is basically a snack, but those seeing my car and expecting food while I'm delivering clean new underwear will at least have something to put into their hungry tummies. It takes the hunger pangs away until they can get to a soup kitchen. I also have some used clothing people donated, used backpacks that were donated and other donated items.
Spread the Word!
Let's Get The Movement Going Humanitarianism Depends Upon Us!
$212,000 divided by .41 each = 517, 073 homeless people, that's over a half a million homeless people that could be treated with snacks to take the edge off of hunger. Or I could do this same thing and treat 100 people an apple, a bag of chips, a bottle of cold water as a mid-morning snack, ready? 5,171 times. Or every day for 14 years! That's right, I could treat 100 hungry homeless persons on the streets every single day of the year for 14 solid years, and then have some left over to snack on during the drive home. $41 x 4 times a day =$164, fed 1,292 times, or fed 4 times a day for 100 people for over 3 and a half years. 41 cents x 2 times daily = 82 x 600 people x 365 days per year is $183,960. $212000 - 183 960 = $28, 040 left over or enough to feed another 68,390 homeless people.
$212,000 divided by 55 ¢ = 385,454 people fed. Or over 100 people fed twice a day everyday for over five years.
Yes, I have big problems with anybody in charity making more than $30-$40,000 per year with donated money, simply because you could end hunger and homelessness, even all of poverty if the fat cows who graze at "charities" and the pigs of Animal Farm in the government didn't hoard the public money for themselves.
Ask any body who is hungry if a bag of chips, an apple and a bottle of water will stop their hunger pang?
The Crime of a $212,000 Charity Salary!
For $212,000 I can buy 212,000 Banquet TV dinners at Albertsons during their 10 for $10 sale and feed nearly a quarter-of-a-million hungry, homeless American citizens. And I bet Albertsons will throw in some free food they have been giving to Three Square, too, I bet, I bet, I bet!
Or, I can bypass Albertsons and go to Wal-Mart and buy 268,354 of the same identical Banquet TV dinners for 79¢ each on sale ALL THE TIME! And feed 134,177 hungry, homeless American citizens TWO TV dinner meals and get some church group to cook them and donate the milk and bread to make it a filling hot meal. Yes, for only $1.58 and a few pennies extra even a fat boy's belly will feel filled.
I could probably buy 424,000 dinners directly from ConAgra Foods, the makers of Banquet dinners for 50¢ each and feed from a quarter-of-a-million to a half-million people with a little help.
This article is (CC) which means Creative Commons. You are free to print it, republish it, circulate it, decorate your walls with it so long as you leave it intact, change nothing and include the byline credit, that’s me, my name, as the author and post or state a link back to this site. The photo images, used for educational purposes, are also (CC) licensed under the same conditions. (Photographer, Cliff Harrison.) Otherwise, ask for permission for any other form of use by e-mailing me.
