Eating

Eating on the streets is a matter of strategy and a lot of energy. For the homeless to eat 3 meals a day they can expect to walk many miles or if they are lucky enough to have a bus pass ride the bus. But for many its the walking option.

Most of the meal sites are spread out in the city. You may have to walk 2-3 miles from downtown to your first meal of the day in the city, then walk back downtown for your second meal, and then after a few hours walk another mile or two to one of the few places near the downtown area to eat your last meal of the day.

It has gotten a little better for the homeless since I have been off of the streets, but there are a lot of footsteps involved still to get from meal site to meal site. And now with the police and other city officials trying to find a universal feeding spot, who knows how far the homeless will have to travel to eat.

When I was on the street, I depended heavily on my food stamp card, and as much as I hate to say it, alot of my meals came from the dumpster behind the local grocery stores. It's a damn shame what stores throw away and not even think about the people on the streets that would love to have that food for a meal.

I would find everything from apples to zucchini bread in the dumpster. There is a trick to that also, you want to be near the rear of the store in the early morning hours, when most of the food is first placed in the dumpster, because you sure don't want to eat food that has sat in the sun half of the day.

I would normally sit and wait around the dumpster about 7am every morning when I didn't have food stamps for that day to eat. Delivery guys would come in, stock the shelves and throw out the expired products. Alot of times I would find snack foods, like chips that I could stick in my bag for later in the day, so I didn't have to wander around so much for food.

Just remember though, it is expired food and some of it may taste like shit. You really have to watch what you eat. Don't be in a rush and start jamming things down your throat, you may make yourself really sick.

All in all, eating was the most time consuming part of my day. I hated trying to find food.