An honest panhandler!
I had a dream this morning that Jeff and I (and some other family members) were in the LDS temple getting ready for a temple worker training. But the woman they called on to give the invocation decided to tell a story instead. It was a story of needy children going to a place like the Hope Center to get food and warm clothes because they didn’t have what they needed.
I woke before she got to the end of the prayer-story, but I immediately remembered that I had read that The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is over a MILLION POUNDS short of food this year. I felt the dream had a message for me and might be significant to most Americans. But here are some thoughts on blessing the most for the dollars you sacrifice.
To illustrate the angst we all feel:
My sister in law works filling orders at a food pantry once a week. The screener verifies that they meet the tests to determine that they are truly needy and are trying to solve their problems and then a shopping list is made up. Among the requirements is proof of a local address. They don’t want people freebee hopping.
One week, she had worked the afternoon going around the pantry, selecting items from the list with clients. The next day, she was driving in the small town and saw one of the very people she’d given a large sack of groceries to on the corner, holding up a cardboard sign that read “Hungry and homeless, Please help, God bless.”
She rolled down her window and he approached her car. “You’re not hungry!” she admonished him. “Don’t you remember that big sack of groceries I gave you yesterday? And you gave your address on your form. Your sign is dishonest!”
The fellow agreed that he wanted money for other things and wandered off down a side street.
I know that readers of Chocolate Cream Centers are good-hearted folks. We feel guilty every time we pass by a cardboard sign-holder, even knowing that the vast majority of these beggars are scammers. I’ve read half a dozen news reports and studies that support this fact. (Google “who are panhandlers”) The homeless and or the truly hungry don’t go stand on street corners to beg with a cardboard sign. They approach people directly if they’re desperate, or they access the charitable organizations and facilities. If a cardboard sign holder has the fortune to get a turn on a lucrative corner with lots of shoppers around it and a long stop light, they can make an average of four figures PER WEEK!
This isn’t news. Yet we still feel guilty because we have developed our capacity for compassion. In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin tells us not to “suffer the beggar to put up his petition in vain.”
Yet how do we keep from letting the pressure of our immediate emotions (guilt, compassion) overwhelm the wise course our intellect dictates?
Consider this: There are only so many charitable dollars to go around. Those monies must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide heat and shelter and job training, fuel and transportation for a large group of unfortunate people. There are hungry children whose parents are too dysfunctional to provide for them RIGHT HERE IN OKLAHOMA and everywhere else my readers are sitting. There are unemployed families who are trying to make ends meet but have been evicted and have nowhere to go. There are school children without decent shoes or warm clothes. If they were assembled on a street corner and you were certain of their need, you’d run to the ATM to make a withdrawal and hurry back to hand out as much as you possibly could, wouldn’t you?
By giving money to cardboard sign-holding scammers, you are essentially robbing the truly (desperately) needy people. You’re giving money that would have gone to them to some dude who is going to go spend it on drugs or alcohol and little or none of it will make him any better off tomorrow.
I’m not saying that if someone approaches you in a parking lot and says they need groceries for their family and have no money, you should turn your back. Buy them a nice big sack of groceries. If they say they need gas, go to a gas station and buy them gas. Don’t believe the line that their destitute family is travelling to another city and ran out of gas and have no money. That’s a scam. Ask to see their car and check their gas gauge.
Best of all: TODAY, WRITE DOWN THE ADDRESS AND PHONE OF THE NEAREST COMMUNITY SHARING-TYPE FACILITY AND PUT IT IN YOUR WALLET. WHEN A DUBIOUS PANHANDLER APPROACHES, GIVE HIM THE SLIP AND TELL HIM YOU’LL MAKE A DONATION TO THAT FACILITY FOR HIS SAKE.
Another advantage to donating online is that you get a receipt so you can deduct that amount on your taxes.
There are dozens of organizations that provide for the truly needy. My favorites spend over 90% of the money and goods they receive directly on benefiting those in need.
If you receive a mail solicitation, check them out on
http://www.charitynavigator.org/. This site ranks all types of non-profits. It describes the work they do and how much of their assets are actually spent on helping those they claim to serve. Localized charities and soup kitchens are not rated on that site, but they have their data printed out and ready if they’re legitimate. Here are some good ones.
For the generous in the Edmond area, The Hope Center of Edmond is a terrific agency for administering effective and efficient relief to the hungry and naked, medical attention to the sick, (with immunizations and prenatal care for poor people) and job-finding assistance. It is a stand alone completely dependent on local donations. You can donate food or clothes if you have some extra, (go to the south west corner of the building on Boulevard and Danforth for donations) but money is much more efficient in providing their most pressing needs.
https://hopecenterofedmond.com/online-giving/
Church related charities are very often some of the best. Reverend West’s Saint Luke Baptist Church and Rev. Calvino Muse’s True Love First Baptist Church Spencer, Oklahoma make mountains of sandwiches in a program they call Sandwiches from Saints. They take them to areas of town where poverty is the deepest and give them to those in need.
Catholic Charities is efficiently run and expert at ministering to the sick and needy.
https://support.catholiccharitiesusa.org
The Salvation Army gets fantastic ratings for efficient ministry to the needy. https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org.
LDS Humanitarian Services spends 100% of donations on food, medicine, clothing, disaster relief. Even transportation costs and administrators (if paid) are paid from other Church funds. https://www.lds.org/topics/humanitarian-service
As I said at the top of the post, The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is short a million pounds of food. It’s easy to donate online.
Give generously before you start your Christmas shopping and pass the panhandlers with a clear conscience!
DOUBLE THE BLESSING TO THE NEEDY BY SHARING THIS POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
2 Comments
Recently I was on a tour that included Romania. We were told not to give money to the little gypsy children. When one of them got in front of me, dropped to her knees pleading for money, I had to give her some. When we got back in the bus our Romanian tour guide had witnessed some of us giving money. He said we were condemning these children. They had to give their money to their handlers. As long as people continued to give money there would always be those who preyed on them. Whenever I am tempted to give money on the street, I remember that Romanian tour guide and I realize by giving money I become part of the problem.
Your ideas about being wiser with our charitable dollars were very good. I was also inspired to help out in our local food bank. Thanks for the great articles, Beth!
Interesting about the Romanian children. It’s heartbreaking, any way you slice it. One comment posted on facebook objected to giving money to organizations because then it went to salaries for employees and other overhead costs. While this usually true, (though some agencies have tiny overhead of less than 10%) isn’t it better to help keep someone employed by a charitable organization than to give directly to a panhandler and potentially keeping a drug dealer or a “handler” in business? Every report I’ve read shows the cardboard sign-holding beggars are not often genuinely needy. They’ve chosen to be professional mooches. They use up funds that ought to go to those who need help to get them through a rough spot. It is my concern for the hungry and needy and poor that inspires me to urge people to give with great caution to be sure that those limited funds go to people in genuine need.