Care Package 4.0 is Complete and Ready for Distribution

in #charity7 years ago (edited)

It's been a while since I started putting these together. The main holdup has been that money is tight. I'm renting a house now, and when I started I was paying the entire amount myself. I have one roomie moved in which has been a great financial relief, and will have another moved in soon.

However, people living on the street can't wait for help. They're suffering right now, and especially need help staying dry and warm in Oregon's rainiest season. It's said that April showers bring May flowers, but man...those showers...they can be brutal.

For this reason, as you can see, Care Package 4.0 has different contents than 3.0. It's tailored to seasonal needs, containing an umbrella, a poncho, a water proof mylar bivvy sack and hand warmers. There's also a Soylent liquid meal replacement in there.

They make great emergency food because they're shelf stable for a full year, they require no preparation and no cleanup. These care packages don't permanently solve any of a homeless person's core problems, but they do offer immediate relief.

So they are tailored to maximize the immediate relief that they provide. Relief from the rain and cold, and relief from hunger. I'd have liked to include power banks, shampoo, toothpaste and so on like Care Package 3.0 but the containers Target had were smaller than before.

Accordingly I couldn't fit as much. I also can't afford as much being that I am only just keeping my own head above water, but then we all feel that way, almost no matter how we're doing. If we let our fear that there isn't enough to go around stop us from giving, nobody would give.

Ten of them in total, as per the usual. Now that I know where and when the local grassroots charity Hot Soup for the Homeless meets, I'll have a much easier time of distributing these. I may give them five, but then personally distribute the other five.

After all, the supplies inside are only half of the relief. The other half comes from seeing that people still give enough of a shit to try to help you. That the world is not the bleak, brutal place it can appear from the lowest points in our lives, and that people are still basically good.

Anyways I'll do a followup post when I get around to handing these out. Every upvote helps me afford more supplies for the next round of care packages, so if you like what I'm doing, consider supporting it so I can keep it up. But also, I hope you're inspired to do this yourself.

When life is good to us, and delivers us an abundance, we can show our appreciation and recognition of that generosity by spreading it around. Not so much as to put ourselves out on the street too obviously, but every person who is doing well enough to be living indoors ought to be thinking "alright, now that I am taken care of, what about others?"

Anything at all you can do is an amazing achievement, because most people do nothing. What excuse can we give, if we have plenty for ourselves, but then have not even the smallest help to give when we come upon somebody worse off?

Never be caught empty handed, without anything to offer. You don't have to give much, you don't need to bankrupt yourself, anything at all is meaningful and useful. Do research what people experiencing homelessness need, and purchase supplies judiciously to maximize the benefit you can deliver per dollar, but don't despair if you can't afford to give much.

Like I said, half of the relief simply comes from discovering not everybody is desensitized to the struggle of the homeless. Not everybody has a cold, dead heart sitting like a lump of iron in their chest. The spirit of gentleness is still alive in you, isn't it? That fire still burns brightly in your chest, doesn't it?

Be invigorated, then! Don't just talk, do. It's not difficult to set aside some of your earnings for a project like this, and it will enrich your heart in ways that no fancy possession or vacation could ever hope to. That's an investment the value of which cannot be quantified, and which will still bring a smile to your face when you're old and grey.


Stay Cozy!

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@alexbeyman,
Hat off for this work dude! As a full time STEEMIAN you are doing a great work! I mean no matter what's the price of STEEM, you are doing your charity works as it is! Respect that work friend!

Cheers~

Never be caught empty handed, without anything to offer. You don't have to give much, you don't need to bankrupt yourself, anything at all is meaningful and useful. Do research what people experiencing homelessness need, and purchase supplies judiciously to maximize the benefit you can deliver per dollar, but don't despair if you can't afford to give much.

I can understand this totally from my own experience since I have done a couple of humanitarian tasks for the homeless. Maybe it is not the solution but at least we are alleviating it day by day and that does make them happy!

very few people care about the homeless, the fact that you do it means a lot and they really appreciate it, you can tell by their faces!

Be invigorated, then! Don't just talk, do. It's not difficult to set aside some of your earnings for a project like this, and it will enrich your heart in ways that no fancy possession or vacation could ever hope to. That's an investment the value of which cannot be quantified, and which will still bring a smile to your face when you're old and grey.

the profits in Steemit can help A LOT in these cases, you just have to not be selfish and use this money for someone else and not for you.

"someone else" who really needs it very much

It amazing how taugh it must be now for you with Steem much lower and you still share what you make with others. Belive it or not, you always motivate me with posts like this. Just yesterday we had a snow in NY. Finaly tomorrow it should be around 60 which should be more helpful for people living on the streets. I always keep some change in case I see someone asking for anything. We never become poor by giving.

Do homeless people really need chargers and something like that?
I thought it should be warm clothes, some food. I'm thinking what would I include to my own health package.

They need to be able to power their smartphones, so they can access public wifi, so they can put in job applications online. Very few businesses accept paper applications anymore. The packages do include food (Soylent) and a poncho and bivvy sack for warmth and protection from rain though. Fitting a set of clothes in there would be difficult, then there's the issue of gendered clothing, sizes, etc.

How about searching for potential jobs for homeless people in your region and looking at the whole situation. They might don't even have a smartphone.
So you can print information with tips and put it in the box. There will be info about places where they can find help, free food, shelter or temporary job.
I think it can help a lot.

Even spreading of those flyers with information can help much more than limited care packages (Just my thoughts, I'm not sure. You have much more experience with helping homeless people).

I hope you be in much better financial situation soon so you can help more and more people in need. There are so many ways anyone can contribute. Admirable Alex

Wonderful project @alexbeyman!

Thanks @bashadow for dropping us a link in the #newbieresteem group.

I wish there was more I could do to help with the care packages, I have resteemed and will pass it on to a few groups I belong to, I think that what you are doing is a very good and humanistic thing, until I can help more you do have my heartfelt thanks for the aid and comfort you provide to those who are facing a difficult time in their lives.

This is an amazing thing that you are doing for these people! How do people issue donations for this? How can other people come together with you to help?

I cannot thank you enough for doing this in your community. The world needs more people like you in it, for the sake of our generations to come. With shit so damaged and people so self centered, it is incredibly hard to find a truly pure soul among the wreckage that once was humanity. Hats off to you for what you are doing @alexbeyman!

That is bad ass.

Wonderful wonderful and wonderful i should say.... You really are man of novelity and you possess a great heart.... Charity is a step towards your own success..