Feeding the poor, free of judgments

Is this mission statement, from one of the largest charities on the West Coast, a description of “toxic” charity?: “Feeding the hungry with dignity; no questions asked, and no judgments made.”

Some will say “yes”: Nobarrier offerings of food and clothing support “bad decision making.” To “give a man a fish” is to destroy his incentive to make a fishing pole. That is, it’s unconditionally-given food and clothing and necessities that keep people from becoming sober, sane and employed. Hence, all giving must be program-dependent and “behavior modification-based.”

For others, there are age old reasons to give the man the fish, “no judgments made”: Among the hundreds I’ve met on the streets, I know no one who finds no-barrier food a reason to eschew a humane, sheltered existence. (I’ve yet to meet the person who wandered away from Canyon Oaks, searching for a free juice box.) Further,

I’ve never noticed hunger leading to better “decision making.” Most troubling, it appears we are now deliberately starving people into submission (See Robert Marbut), as a means of driving them toward notvery-desirable, bigger and bigger “navigation” warehouses — with no REAL housing in sight.

Especially with the longplanned gutting of the Jesus Center food and clothing programs, many will hear the call to offer dignified, no-barrier hospitality and we now have an opportunity to get much closer to people living in our public spaces. Our work is cut out for us. But we can make this mission our own.