Day 2 - Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

On Sunday I went to South Bay to see my family for Mother's Day. It turned out to be a crazy day because my grandma's kitchen is going to be renovated and they needed to clear everything out of the house and we ended up clearing out her pantry. This wasn't any old pantry...it was what I call a "hoarder's paradise". Prior to clearing out the pantry, my aunt Cindy emailed the whole family asking them to play a game. The game was to guess what the oldest expiration date was in that pantry. My guess was 1993.....and I won.

That's crazy, isn't it? To have canned food that expired in 1993?? Upon my return home I started thinking about our trip and how we would also have to clean out our kitchen and fridge. I obsessively went to the fridge to do an inventory of the food and realized we have way too much peanut butter and jelly. So on Monday evening, I decided to buy two loaves of bread and proceeded to make about two dozen sandwiches for the homeless. 

I knew I was going to a workout class this am in the Mission so packed all the sandwiches with me plus some extra yogurt we had. I walked from the 24th Street Bart to my class looking for people to pass out sandwiches to (the bag of sandwiches was heavy!). Granted it was 9:30 am, but there was no one! 

As I continued to walk I first of all noticed how different the Mission felt in the morning. It was really weird to be out when the streets were so empty. I did keep looking for people and found that there weren't that many homeless people out and if they were, they were walking with their things. I felt afraid to approach them so kept waiting and didn't pass out any sandwiches until after my class when I decided to walk from the Mission to the FiDi. 

The first person I felt comfortable with giving a sandwich to was a man on Market and Octavia who had a sign and was asking for spare change. He gratefully accepted the sandwich. As I kept walking, I found that I felt more comfortable giving food to anyone who had a sign, or was asking for spare change. Thankfully, most everyone I approached took the food. The few exceptions were:

-The second guy I gave food to - he was great he said "Bless you for the offer and bless you for the sandwich."

-This man lying on the side of the street that I offered food to - he reached out for the food, then said no thanks and laughed because he's going to McDonalds. Some guy gave him $20!

-A man organizing his things right on Market and Fremont - I tried to offer him some food and he just waved me off!

I feel good that hopefully some more people were fed today. I would like to do this once a week and conquer my fear of approaching people.