In the face of growing homelessness, initiatives that provide food packs for the less fortunate play a vital role in offering immediate support and fostering a sense of community.
Step 1 – Select your Group of Recipients and Target Area(s)
- Select recipients that you feel will appreciate your gesture a lot.
- Collaborate with local shelters, community centers, or outreach programs to ensure your efforts align with the genuine needs of the homeless population in your community.
- Decide on one or multiple target areas where you find enough recipients, keep in mind that larger areas require more time for distribution
Step 2 – Select the Number and Type of Items you want to give away
- Rice with a home-cooked meal is the best choice for giving away food packs, make sure it’s something many people will enjoy
- Common items may also include non-perishable food, water bottles, hygiene products, and essentials like socks or blankets.
- Consider nutritional value, dietary restrictions, and the practicality of the items for individuals without regular access to kitchen facilities.
Step 3 – Plan a Setup and Flow of Distribution
- There are two parts of the distribution: Transportation and Handover
- Transportation: Do you want to use a vehicle? Can you do it alone or do you need help? Can you load everything at once or need to go back in between to load more items? Do you for example need cooling so the food won’t spoil?
- Handover: How will you find the recipient? How will you approach him/her? Will you say something before or afterwards?
- Pick a centralized location that is easily accessible to the homeless population and plan for a simple, organized distribution process.
- If you have to record the handover, don’t hold the camera straight into your recipient’s face or even ask them to pose. Recipients will not feel good about receiving your gift if they are just used for your video.
Step 4 – Buy and prepare all Materials required for your Plan
- Organize all materials so you can prepare and pack the finalized item as efficient as possible
- It’s often nice to add a message to your gift, even if they are just printed out on paper and taped onto the food pack. People will wonder why you gave them a food pack randomly, tell them what you want them to know, as short as possible.
- Ensure all items are well-packaged and ready for efficient distribution.
Step 5 – Organize help for Distribution if necessary
- Especially when giving away many food packs, you might need a vehicle and potentially even a driver or rider that helps you while you give the food packs to the recipients
- Make sure the vehicle is able to support the total size and weight
Step 6 – Do the Distribution
- If your plan was detailed enough, most will work as planned
- Prepare some more time than you think for unexpected situations (traffic, not finding enough recipients right away, etc.)
- Be flexible in case something goes wrong to at least make the best out of it for yourself and the recipients. It’s the thought that counts and many people will appreciate that already.
- Take the opportunity to engage with the homeless community, listen to their stories, and offer any additional support or information about available resources.
- Don’t set your expectations for reactions too high. Some people can be happy even without freaking out
