Morning Everyone
Good morning.
Yes, about 3 times a year we do thanksgiving food to hand out, a soup kitchen, normally about 15-10 homeless people that go to that church will eat their. Our county is surprisingly packed with homeless people, most of which were veterans.
That's a nice thing of you to do. Regardless of the stats and demographics it's nice to help someone out when you can. Most people have time that can be donated if nothing else. My immediate area doesn't have an abundance of homeless folks, but most parts of Orlando do. If you're going to be homeless, a warm place is a good place to start.
When I lived and worked downtown Orlando, I was faced with many adventures with homeless people. Some good some bad, and then extremes of both sides. There was a young man named Pat that I befriended. I was 21 and he was 19. Pat was a big fella from Pittsburgh. He stood at 6'7" and close to 300#. This is part of my cooking career, so if there was a homeless person willing to work, I would pay them with a hot meal. Most of the times it would be helping with trash, cleaning floors, or something to help close the place down. That's how I met Pat, and Pat would work with a smile and show his appreciation for a good meal.
I'd see Pat time to time as I would hang out downtown a lot myself on my time off. He was always respectful and nice to the people he would panhandle. He always took no for an answer and the first time. You could see the shame in his eye to ask for a handout afterwards. He was just a kid, we both where, but he knew that's not where he belonged.
After a couple of months of him helping 3-4 times a week and talking for many hours we became friends. I never knew the full on reason why he was homeless, but he did tell me the reason he had not gone back home was he was scared of what his family would do/think.
Later in the year it was starting to get cold, and I asked Pat to move in. He was reluctant at first. Pat was a black guy who cam from a very racist family. Even though he wasn't, he was still conflicted by what he knew and what he believed.
"Nah man, it just ain't right."
"What's not right about it?"
"You know what my family would say if they knew I lived with a white dude in FL?"
"What would your family say if you lived under a bridge in FL?"
Long story shorter, Pat moved in. Turns out even a FL winter outside is to cold for a Pittsburgh guy to sleep out in.
He ended up getting on a bus to go home a couple of weeks before Christmas. He was terrified of his mom, but finally had enough of being homeless.
That's just one story of one extreme, but it is one of the better ones.
Hey how about your turkeys how are they doing?
My Bella (Muscovy) Is standing like a statue in the snow 
They rather stand out their in the cold than go shelter in the garage or under the porch. 
