A very large corporation has rented out the Inn that I work at for three nights, and tonight was their first night. They are a very lively, fun group and it is definitely a completely different atmosphere for the Inn. Since they were all arriving at different times today, they had dinner catered in and there was a TON of food. So much so that there were a lot of leftovers including multiple large platters of sandwiches. We do not have room to store all of this food in our refrigerators at the Inn and much of it was being thrown away. At the end of the night, we tried to send sandwiches home with all of the staff members that would take them, but there was still an entire platter of sandwiches left when I was ready to close the Inn and go home for the evening. As I was staring at this giant platter of sandwiches, trying to bring myself to throw them into the trash can, I thought about a group of homeless people that I see almost every night on my way home from work. There is a little section of my drive home where there are usually at least four or five people, sleeping on the sidewalk and in doorways, and every time I drive by them, I think about how hard it must be to live on the street. I decided that, even though a lot of people would say that it is not the safest or smartest thing to do, I would wrap up the tray of sandwiches and take it to them. I closed up the Inn and loaded up my car with my stuff and the tray of sandwiches and drove to the spot that I usually pass. Most of the people there were asleep and I didn't feel quite right about getting out of my car to wake them up to ask if they wanted sandwiches so I kept driving and, in true LA-form, within a block I found another little group of homeless people sitting at a bus station, clearly awake. I pulled up in front of the bus station, rolled down my passenger-side window, and asked the man closest to me if he was hungry. He approached my window, somewhat shyly, and, when I handed him the tray of sandwiches, his whole face lit up. He was older, and didn't seem to have a whole lot of energy, but he told me several times how happy this made him. I wished him a good night and drove away. My apartment was less than a mile from that spot and on the way home I felt so good. I know that I didn't do anything amazing. It was such an easy thing for me to do-I didn't have to invest much time and the sandwiches were free leftovers. I also realize that tonight is just one night among so many that that man, like thousands of others, is struggling through on the street. But I felt like I helped in some little way. It made me happy to know that at least tonight, that man (and hopefully a few other people) will go to sleep with a full stomach.
The thing that frustrates me about this situation is that every day, literally tons of perfectly good food is just thrown away, by restaurants, cafes, and other establishments. It is so hard to understand this in light of the fact that so many people go hungry everyday. It seems like such an easy solution for there to be an organization that goes around and collects leftovers from these places and distributes the food to people who really need it. Unfortunately, most establishments are worried about being sued if their food somehow causes someone to become sick, so they throw it away instead. Here is an article about this issue:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/28/business/la-fi-lazarus-20100727/2
