Home Van Newsletter 9/1/09

GUERILLA LUNCH-FARE

That is what I call the food people are bringing to the perimeter of St. Francis House and to the downtown plaza to give to the people turned away after #130 is admitted to St. Francis House for lunch. So far I am getting very good reports from those who are participating in this effort - that it is a beautiful and rewarding thing to do.

This is a Taoist project - no coordinator. Extra food can be taken to the downtown plaza for those who have given up trying to get lunch at SFH, or simply given away for people to eat later or take to those back at their campsites. Too much food is rarely an issue. PB&Js can be frozen, if there are truly too many. It would be tough to coordinate something like this, and I truly believe it isn't necessary. The Home Van runs on Taoism, for the most part, and it works. Or, another way to put it - God has perfect timing!

I have been thinking a lot lately about what Ghandi and Martin Luther King said, which I will paraphrase. Ghandi said, "I am not against the British people, I am for Indian people." MLK said, "I am not against white people, I am for African-Americans." Maybe it is time to stop waging war on poverty. That's been going on since I can remember, and poverty always wins. Maybe it is time to start waging love. Guerilla Lunch-Fare is one way to do it. Without food, there is no justice, and without justice, there is no peace.

SOUP MAKERS NEEDED

The Home Van has recently lost three of its soup makers to other committments. We have rotating soup makers every Thursday. Typically, a soup maker doth make soup one Thursday a month. We have a large restaurant grade soup pot and a five-gallon thermos. The soup maker picks up the pot and thermos from Home Van Central on Wednesdays and returns it Thursday afternoons around 4 p.m. If you would like to be a soup maker contact Liz McCulloch at mcculloc@law.ufl.edu

JACKIE "BUTTERFLY"

A year or so ago, the Home Van Newsletter ran an obituary for a young homeless woman named Jackie, whose street name was "Butterfly." A month or so before this, Jackie and her partner said goodbye to us at the downtown plaza and announced that they were going to hitchhike to California. Then, a few weeks later, Jackie's friend came back to town, grief-stricken (or at least it seemed so at the time) and told us that Jackie had been killed by a hit-and-run truck driver. He gave many sobbing details and no one doubted his story for one moment, that I know of. Last week - I am happy to report - Jackie "Butterfly" walked into the downtown library, her usual bright and cheery self. So, along with Mark Twain, reports of her demise were greatly exaggerated.

love, arupa

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The Home Van needs creamy peanut butter, jelly, Vienna sausages, bottled water, white socks, candles, tents and tarps. Call 372-4825 to arrange for drop-off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601. All donations are tax-deductible.