re: #193 darthstar

But you’re in Chicago.
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Seriously, sociopathic behavior is the exception, not the norm. That shouldn’t be the first or even a primary concern. I give leftover food to homeless people on a regular basis. And I see others do the same - saw a twenty-something woman just a week or two ago stop on their way to work and walk back thirty feet to a guy rummaging in a garbage can to hand him her packed lunch.

It only took one sociopath to make an entire nation afraid of OTC drugs, back in the Tylenol scare.

Beyond that, though, I see problems with the ‘share shelf’ idea, like how long food sits out before it’s eaten. Giving a homeless person your leftovers directly is one thing. Leaving it out for them to take at some point in the future is another.

My late brother-in-law used to work with Food Not Bombs (till he jokingly referred to it as ‘Food For Bums’ and got chucked out). They’d do dumpster dives at markets, bakeries, etc and get food that was being tossed but was otherwise edible. They’d also make big post of soup and such and hand out bowls to homeless folks. But they were working out of cars and vans, because the cops would break it up when they found them.

That sounds like the cops were being heartless, but consider - the Food Not Bombs folks were not professionally trained. Did any of them have any training in food safety? Did they have the equipment to keep the food hot enough to prevent bacterial growth? Or was the food sitting at room temp for hours before being distributed? A couple dozen homeless folks getting food poisoning from well-meaning DFH’s is no joke.

So I end up ambivalent about ad hoc methods for feeding hungry homeless people, and not solely because of the possibility of intentional mischief.