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Soup Runs: Good or Bad For The Homeless? By Uncle Monty.
=.=
Anti-soup runs advocate Maff Potts and pro-soup
runs supporter Alastair Murray recently sparred
in The Times in their respective articles -
"Is it time to outlaw soup runs?"
=.=
Having read and digested their views on soups runs,
I felt it would be a good idea to present a wider
range of opinions - not just those of Potts and Murray -
on the burning question of soup runs and to ask if such
is good or bad for the homeless. Thus I have herein
selected such opinions which I have edited due to
space and for clarity. In order to aviod the same
repetitious opinions on the topic at hand, I have
found a broad range of Yes and No or Good
or Bad or For and Against opinions on soups
runs for the homeless in the UK, but especially
runs in London. The first few comments below
are taken from ITV.com forums on homelessness.
Other comments are taken from various web-
sites and blogz like that of Brighton's
Catholic priest Father Ray Blake.
=.=
From dellydee:
Soup Runs are a good and very necessary service.
Whilst I agree that they do not solve a long term
problem. They do provide an immediate solution
for people who are hungry NOW and may have
the soup kitchens as their only source of nutrition.
Taking them away could mean more illness and
misery for many. It aggravates me that so many
politicians take away short term care needs because
they don't provide long term solutions. They forget
the current needs of the many and rarely are the
long term needs met anyway. I remember when so
many fragile people with mental health disorders
were turned out of hospitals and care facilities, their
needs were not met and nothing has been provided
for an alternative long term care solution. Short
term solutions may only be a plaster but without
the plaster the wounds become more infected
and desperate.
=.=
From daffodilly:
I work in a different field (small dog rescue) but it's much
the same principle I think, it's like trying to stop a tsunami
and the trick is to only help the one's you personally can
because if you think of the wider picture you would give
up and no one would be helped at all. We have vast
numbers of ill people on the streets and they cannot
cope with life. Re-open some of the better Mental
Health/Asylums (for those suffering homeless). I
think it would actually be better. Care in the
community does not work.
=.=
From john e:
Most of the homeless are sick, either mental, drugs or
alcohol. They are depressed, they need help so they can
help themselves, I am not suggesting they have a cosy bed
and scoff for nowt, they have got to learn that they have to
earn it. A mug of soup at midnight will never do that.
=.=
From jdbabe:
With all the cut backs in charity grants, it looks like the
problem of the homeless isnt going to be solved. Soup
kitchens may become the only level of help these people
get and it seems now that you want to take that away too.
.
The problem will get worse as unemployment continues
to rise and people get evicted/repossesed from their
homes. The infrastructure isnt there just like in the "care
in the community" farce. Its no good goading the home-
less/unemployed into work if there isnt any jobs to go
to in the first place. "Shelters" need money to be built,
where is this going to come from? Charities rely on
donations and the populace in general are more con-
cerned with their own problems than thinking about
donating. The government has cut back its grants
drastically, so no joy there. Private investment?
Thats a joke cos there isnt any profit in it. "Doss-
ing" in public places is very often the only place
left as all the shelters are full. To do what I'm
suggesting would take facilities the size of prisons
to even address the matter. That smacks of the
workhouse scenario in this day of financial
insecurity and a tory government, I'd be
careful of what you wish for!
=.=
From GR in his westendextra.com letter:
From Compassion and soup a bad mix. The
Forum by Jad Adams on soup runs actually proves
the opposite point – why Westminster City Council
is right to ban soup runs and rough sleeping. His
article is all about his and the soup runs’ so-called
“compassion” and desire for martyrdom, but not what
actually helps rough sleepers? Giving money or free food
to rough sleepers is exactly the same as giving heroin to
a drug addict or whisky to an alcoholic. By doing these
things, you are not being a Christian at all. In fact you
are helping them kill themselves (or at least drastically
shorten their lives), in the name of “kindness”
or “compassion”.
.
Why should any rough sleeper change their destructive
and chaotic lifestyle if people like Mr Adams and all
the others keep them ever longer on the streets by
their handouts?
.
The council are doing the right thing by supporting rough
sleepers away from the streets – which will kill them –
into indoor services which can truly transform their lives.
This is real compassion, charity plus self-help.
.
Local people, like me, do not want rough sleepers choosing
to sleep on the streets of Westminster. The soup runs and
those who give money to beggars just make the borough
a worse place for everyone.
=.=
From Father Ray Blake:
Ban Soup Runs! The Bones has a peice on the Government
wanting, possibly, to ban soup runs. For the past 30 years our
parish has run one: day in, day out small groups of parishioners
and their friends prepare food and take it down to the seafront
and feed anyone who turns up. The photograph he uses - and
included above as the caption photo for this online story here
on allaboutthebigissue - was taken of our soup run some
ten years ago.
.
It is interesting that in Westminster some charities that work
for the homeless are against soup runs.There are voices in
the local council who really don't like what we do,
suggesting it attracts the homeless and makes Brighton more
"homeless friendly", others have said "food for free" encourages
a degree of fecklessness, others just object to the possibility
of "litter". It is true that during the 30 years we have had to
move away a residential area to the open space of the
promenade, it can be intimidating to gather 30/40 homeless
people together, some of whom might be high on drink or
drugs, or just anti-social. For myself I can understand
misgivings, if we give someone a sandwich are encouraging
him or her just to save the cost of feeding themselves in
order to spend the money on booze, well I suppose
better for them to have the money to pay for it rather
than to have no money and steal from the
local small shopkeeper.
.
There is a difference between "soup runs" done in the open
and "soup kitchens" done in a building. "Soup kitchens"
can offer a lot more pastoral care, a little counselling, re-
ferral to more specialised services, they can also have
better trained staff on hand. Our soup run simply
feeds, and depending on who is feeding that night
might do a bare minimum of referral.
.
The advantage it has over the a "soup kitchen" is that it is
cheap, We do it for £15 a night, which the parish pays,
plus any treats helpers might bring. The whole thing is
rather impromptu, people arrive wanting food, just be-
fore 7pm, those with food arrive at 7pm, food and
drink is distributed and by 7.30pm it is done.
.
It is popular. One of the reasons is that many homeless
people have a real aversion to being enclosed in a building,
or faced with an interrogation they can't escape. They prefer
being in the open, there are no hoops to jump through, helpers
might get to know someone's name, or at least the name they
give, even their life story, but there is no form filling, no
registration, no hassle, no expectation of interaction. So
many of those who come have a phobia of any invasion
of privacy, they don't want to be sucked into a process
that is going to get them off the street, or anywhere else.
.
They often fear a loss of the little control they have over
their lives. Some, on their way "down" or "up" don't want
to even tell other people or even themselves they are in need
of food. Others don't want involvement with other homeless
or needy people, who can be quite frightening. At our soup
run they can, if they wish, merely be on a nodding
acquaintanceship with other people in need.
Visit Fr. Ray's blog: http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/
:-:
From TVGirl31:
I suggest that we should start adopting the American system
of the government issuing food stamps for the homeless.
=.=
From Mike McNabb:
Oddly, the council's move is supported by some other home-
lessness charities, including Thames Reach and St Mungo's,
although not the Coombe Trust, which provides the sustenance.
Surprising is Thames Reach's reaction, which last year highlighted
the shocking desperation of the rough sleepers who resorted to
eating rats. It says street handouts do little to help in the long-term.
.
Westminster maintains that the soup runs "attract" homeless people
to the borough, as if they were economic migrants. What will
Westminster claim next? That there is selfish and excessive
demand for gluten-free minestrone?
.
The basic human rights laid down by Unesco are food, clothing
and shelter; the Coombe Trust aims to help fulfil the first of
those. If Westminster, with the help of homelessness charities,
fulfilled the third, the demand for the soup runs would
reduce naturally.
.
Currently, the Coombe Trust is performing a duty which, one
must assume, is very much in keeping with the ambitions of
David Cameron's Big Society vision - a voluntary organisation
doing the work that local authorities cannot be bothered
or cannot afford to do.
.
But Westminster, which is attempting to give the impression
of being cruel to be kind when it is just being cruel, is doing
its best to kill the Big Society a mile from 10 Downing Street.
.
It's being strangled at birth on your doorstep, Dave,
and even the Daily Mail is appalled. It must be bad.
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/social-policy-blog/2011/03/is-soup-kitchen-ban-in-keeping.html
=.=
From Alty:
Jesus, people living on the streets of the United Kingdom
in 2011 is bad enough. Now we're banning the practice
of offering them a bit of soup because it's inconvenient.
I find the way in which morals have become so horrendously
twisted quite frightening. Offering some criminals the chance
to vote is seen as essential to meeting human rights obligations,
but nobody is forcing us to actually give people somewhere
to live. It's seen as justifiable to ban soup runs because
people forming a large group is a bit annoying.
WTF happened?
http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=128659
=.=
Let me now continue:
I'm of two minds on soup runs (or "tea runs," as some
say), since I myself was a beneficiary of such soup runs
when I was on the streets both in London and Washington,
D.C. My opinion is that soup runs can either be a god send or a crutch for the homelsss. In other words, those who
use soups runs as a temporary means to survive on the
streets until they take steps to get off the streets is good.
Those who use soup or teas runs on a permanent basis
to aviod bettering themselves (due to personal inertia
and lack of motivation) and getting off the streets is
obviously bad for them since such runs only aid and
abet them to stay homeless and also useless!!
=.=
But to "criminalize" soups runs is indeed typical of
England thesedays in which to solve some problem
the central government and/or local councils, like the
notorious and vicious Westminster Council, criminalize
those who are seen to be the problem. In this case the
same said Westminsiter Council now outlaws such
runs is that they both criminalize the giver and the
taker of donated food in one big anti-homeless bite.
...
Next they well could start to criminalize The Big Issue
owners and their street vendors for keeping the home-
less on the streets like some say The Big Issue does as
some say soup runs also do. Personally, I would quite
happy to see The Big Issue criminalized, frankly, but
not its hapless vendors since they're there due to the
menace and mechanicization that The Big Issue has
become to all of those who dare challenge the vile
and wicked Peter and Anthony John Bird of The
Big Issue. But that's another question for
another time, right now.
=.=
As for soup runs, as I've already said, I'm of two
minds about them. I can see both the good and bad
aspects of such. Anything that intentionally or un-
intentionally aids and abets homelessness is bad as
we find with the whole proposition behind getting
the homeless to flog The Big Issue up and down
the country. While anything that intentioanlly or un-
intentionally truly helps the homeless constructively
then that's good as far as I'm concerned. The
problem is determining what is really good or what
is really bad for folkz on the streets. What is good
for one could be bad for another or visa versa.
Soups runs are designed to fit all. Basically, I think
soup or tea runs may have also outlived their
original purpose in that there are now a number
of options for the homeless to eat off the streets
at various Day Centres and Church-based
and secular food programs and the like.
=.=
Soup Runs To Help Feed The Dogz of the Homeless?
=.=
Occasionally, I have also seen where the homeless
have used soup runs to help feed their pet dogs due
to having no money to buy dog food, let alone
money to feed themselves!!!
=.=
Incidentially, while I was on my way last time to
an invitation to BBC Radio 4 recording of "Four
Thought" at RSA just off The Strand, I was accost-
ed by three homeless beggers within the space of
perhaps my 20-minute walk to the studio. Of the
three of them all were East European foreigners
- one from Hungray (excuse the unintended pun),
Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. What soup runs
don't provide is cash or money to the homeless like
those foreigners want in begging off locals on The
Strand. Many Big Issue vendors are known to
also do the same under the guise of "selling" the
Bird rag and turning their pitch into a "legit"
platform to beg from the public.
=.=
The fella from Hungray also told me he was
a badged Big Issue vendor, but business was
very bad and he was first losing money by
buying wholesale the Bird rag and finding
customers were getting harder and harder for
him to find. So he quit trying to sell and instead
begs here and there on The Strand and else-
where. He added he made more needed money
that way than by standing all day on the street
looking like an idiot trying to sell and to make
a profit off The Big Issue. London soup runs he
also relies upon to survive as a foreigner in-
eligible for UK state benefits, he told me
somewhat fretfully.
=.=
Another thing about soup runs is that they are
basically an urban phenomenon that don't exist
for the rural or suburban homeless and poor.
They can starve, basically. So the city and ur-
ban homeless, which always has the greatest
number of homeless, is the focal point of dis-
trubuting food or snacks via such organized
runs. If one takes a look say at London's Red
Lion Square and see the masses of homeless
hanging out there like aimless tin pan alley, I can
see why those non-homeless folkz who live and/
or work there are opposed to soup runs. It adds
urban blight or an eyesore, if you, to see 65 to
over 100 rough homeless men and women all
gathered at one spot every time the soup runs
are due. The scene can also be rowdy and noisy
and the litter and refuse left scattered all over the
street does little to help gain public sympathy and
support for the homeless to continue to benefit
from such soup or tea runs. The homeless on the
whole aren't mindful of good public relations,
of course. They are oftentimes their own worst
enemy, too. While The Big Issue "mafioso" at
Vauxhall use public relations to gain for themselves
even more greedy money in the manipulated name
of helping the homeless! No wonder pigface Anthony
John Bird is set against soup runs, begging and
social housing as an ex-homeless guy himself who
now has become filthy rich and ever greedy at
the expense of today's homeless and in his
hideous role as a new breed of slavemaster,
much like his own little prickhead brother Peter
Bird, toward his own street vendors. The
Bird Brothers, of course, literally stink ...
=.=
So still with two minds about soup runs, I have not
made a final decision whether they are good or bad
for the homeless. I guess, I lean 50/50 towards
supporting such, while on the other hand I feel
like opposing such. Whatever way I finally decide
in my own mind about soup or tea runs, I do know
that without a doubt that I am totally opposed
and strongly against criminalizing the givers (the
volunteers) and the takers (the homeless) of
donated food on\the streets and no matter
where such takes place either inside Broken
Britain or inside murderous America.
.=.=
Cordially, Uncle Monty.
Have a wonderful Eastertide, too!
+Eve of Maundy Thursday, 2011.
.
:: UPDATE ::
E-mail Message From Davy Dunn.
A CUPPA OF TEA OR A BLOW OF SOUP
FOR US HOMELSSS IS FROM THE OLD DAYS OF
MR. DICKENS. GET A LIFE HOMELESS PEOPLE.
GET A JOB LIKE ME. DON'T GET SUCKED INTO
RUNS. RUN THE OTHER WAY WHEN YOU SEE
THEM. AND DON'T SELL BIG ISSUE. YOU'LL NOT
GET FAR AS A STREET SELLER. SOUP RUNS AND
SELLING BIG ISSUE ARE THE SAME - THEY KEEP
US HOMELESS ON THE STREETS. THEY DON'T
HELP BETTER YOU.
.
RUNS ARE RUN BY BLEEDING HEARTS WHO
GET A KICK OUT OF FEEDING THE HOMELESS
BUT DO NOTHING TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO
GET OFF THE STREET. THAT IS THE SAME
WITH BIG ISSUE.
.
THANK YOU UNCLE MONTY FOR POSTING
YOUR STORY ON SOUP RUNS. YOU CERTAINLY
GAVE A GOOD CROSS SECTION OF OPINIONS
ON THE SUBJECT THAT NEEDED TO BE AIRED
ON A HOMELESS BLOG LIKE YOUR'S.
Davy Dunn. April 22, 2011.
....
Soup Runs & Rough Sleeping Byelaws.
Westminster City Council - Press release
.
http://westminster.gov.uk/
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View.
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Do soup kitchens help the homeless?
By Lissa Cook.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7155783.stm.
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Soup Kitchens Survey - Homeless Bob.
By HOMELESS BOB.
http://www.homelessbob.org.uk/soupkitchenssurvey.htm
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INSIDE HOUSING.
‘Soup runs are unnecessary' claim divides homelessness groups.
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/%E2%80%98soup-runs-are-unnecessary-claim-divides-homelessness-groups/114149.article
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Benn attacks plans to ban soup runs.
http://www.epolitix.com/latestnews/article-detail/newsarticle/benn-attacks-plans-to-ban-soup-runs/
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Gathering To Get Free Food at Mother Teresa's London HQ.
^ Photo By Alex Albion.
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Feedback & Comments
allaboutthebigissue@britain.com
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HOLY WEEK
By Uncle Monty.
http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2011/04/holy-week.html
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